When should we discard explanations

that are intuitively appealing?

TOK ESSAY
HEADING NUMBER: 4
Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal
Candidate Number: 002332-008

WORD COUNT: 1595

Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal

Candidate Number: 002332-008

When should we discard explanations that are intuitively

appealing?

Intuition refers to a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling
rather than conscious reasoning1. What many express as being gut feeling, intuition
is the inner belief of someone that lies in the unconscious realm of understanding;
defined by a collection of impulses and subconscious processes, built on past and
present experiences. Intuition shares its roots with the Latin word, intueri which is
roughly translated as to look inside or to contemplate2. Intuition does not abide by
any reason, logic or statistical data. Why then, do we make so many intuitive
decisions everyday? And more importantly, how reliable are these gut impulses?
Delving deep into the area of natural sciences and mathematics, we find that logic
plays a more crucial role in providing explanations. All the key theories and principles
only thrive when backed up by logical evidence. And while these theories may
sometimes be against the voice of intuition, they still flourish because they are
inherently concrete and mathematically irrefutable. Albert Einsteins3 Theory of

1 Source: Oxford Dictionary< http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/intuition>

Date accessed: 20th November 2011

2 Source: Wikipedia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(psychology)> Date

accessed: 20th November 2011

3 Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the

theory of general relativity, affecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement,
Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most
prolific intellects in human history. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics
"for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law
of the photoelectric effect".Source:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#cite_note-3> Date accessed: 20th
November 2011

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Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal

Candidate Number: 002332-008

When should we discard explanations that are intuitively

appealing?
Relativity4, published in 1915 and 1905 as 2 different papers, got accepted only after
the 1920s when results from accurate telescopes backed up his theory.
However, are all mathematicians and scientists only guided by logic?
Remarkably, Einstein himself said, The only real valuable thing is intuition.
There was no logic or reason behind his popular formula

E=mc 2 . He simply made

it up thinking it has to be so5. Because he couldnt transmute the Newtonian laws of

science by complex mathematical reasoning based on the Newtonian laws itself, he
simply woke up one morning thinking that the equation had to be true. Had he
discarded an explanation that arose to him intuitively, the most popular equation in the
world would not be in existence today.
The notion of his intuition is important to prove a point that everyone has different
intuition. Hundreds of conjectures formed in the same year on the basis of intuition
were discarded by the scientific community simply because they had no logical
evidence to substantiate it. Today, we are living in a world that revolves around
Einsteins famous equation but had it not been backed up by the telescopic images
serving as a voice of reason, it too would have faded away along with the thousands
that did.
Moving on from the realm of natural sciences to the roots of ethics and human
sciences, we find that intuition has a more critical role in the development of
explanations. Sometimes, in cases of human sciences and ethics, we often find that
what seems to be intuitively correct is logically flawed. For example, Body Shop
started its campaign as being the only cosmetic company that produces its product
without testing them on animals6. Logically, a lack of testing would probably lead to a
4 A theory, formulated essentially by Albert Einstein, that all motion must be

defined relative to a frame of reference and that space and time are relative,
rather than absolute concepts.Source:
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/general+theory+of+relativity> Date
accessed: 20th November 2011

5 Source: Stresscure

<http://www.stresscure.com/hrn/einstein.html> Date accessed: 23rd November

2011

6
Source: Body Shop Website <http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/values-

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Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal

Candidate Number: 002332-008

When should we discard explanations that are intuitively

appealing?
poor quality product and the expenditure on the investment of technology to substitute
animal testing would also be substantially high. Why then, would body shop pursue
its animal-friendly campaign? Because it seems to be ethically correct and
consequently, intuitively appealing.
But again, could Body Shops decision to restrict harmful tests on animals be a
method of marketing over any socially friendly campaign. Much of its success today
has been credited to its corporate social responsibility, but is it true altruism or a profit
making strategy? Looking at the sales and the size of growth, if it is a marketing
strategy, then we can safely say that it has been quite a successful one. Animal testing
was banned back in 20047 but Body Shop still reputes and markets itself as being the
business that does not test its products on animals. Again however, there are
thousands of social enterprises that have made ethically and intuitively correct
decision but failed to create numbers to proclaim itself successful.
There is a pattern in these and many more observations like the ones given above.
Logic and intuition are two sides of the same coin, biased in favour of logic in some
areas of knowledge, and biased in favour of intuition in others. But why is it that some
decisions require more of logic while other decisions require more of gut feeling?
Because both, logic and intuition have weaknesses that irrevocably leads to flawed
explanations in particular areas. As a result, successful explanations only arise from
an understanding of these strengths and weaknesses, and a situational application to a
problem.
Logic is reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity 8.
Therefore, inaccuracies in pre-conceived notions, exterior truths and stereotypes are
often omitted in logical thinking. Logic can be used to make long-term strategies,
campaigns/against-animal-testing.aspx> Date accessed: 14th December

7
Source: Body Shop Website (Video)<http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/valuescampaigns/against-animal-testing.aspx> Date accessed: 14th December

8
Source: Oxford Dictionary<http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/logic>

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Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal

Candidate Number: 002332-008

When should we discard explanations that are intuitively

appealing?
solve complex questions, and understand in theory the nature of any problem.
However, logic can still not prosper alone. Logical methods often require idealized
conditions. In economics, for instance, every logical theory requires ceteris paribus,
which means all else being constant. Without having this condition attached, no
relationship in economics can be justified. For a rise in price to reduce quantity
demanded, population, taste, substitutes, branding, trade cycle, supply, all have to
remain the same. Logic requires theory. The implication of this is that when all hell
breaks loose, or when any situation is out of theory, out of the norm, logic fails to
deliver. Because logic requires such an ideal and perfect system, depending solely on
logic can lead to disasters. One of these disasters came about when I was faced with a
math question, on which I spent hours on, trying to use all the formulae on my head
and everything I was taught, only to find out that the question was wrong. Oftentimes,
we rely so much on logical explanation that we often omit even the most basic
explanations. And this, over any other, is why we can never really solely depend on
logic for an explanation.
Intuition is important to us because all of our everyday problems are usually dealt
with intuitive explanations. Intuition is theory-free and in many cases, much quicker
than logical thinking. Intuition is immune to the bizarre nature of this world and in the
hands of an expert, often leads to correct decisions. However, intuition is based on our
preconceived notions and is hence, more attracted to what seems good on the surface
rather than what is actually correct. For instance, if we are dealing with a sequence
describing the outcome of a coin toss, HTHTHHTTHT seems much more random and
intuitively appealing than HHHHHHHHHH. Mathematically, we know that both of
these sequences are equally likely to be produced by a fair coin. Logically, the two
sequences hold no difference as each of them is equally likely, but intuitively, the
second sequence seems almost impossible. Moreover, intuition is often subject to bias
and leads to false stereotypical ideas construed as appealing by us. For instance, if a
man wearing a black suit robs a woman, then she will most likely stay away from men
wearing black suits. Logically, the idea is flawed because what a man wears does not
define his inner intentions but because the woman has been robbed by a man on a
black suit, she will at least subconsciously stay away from them. Because intuition is
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Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal

Candidate Number: 002332-008

When should we discard explanations that are intuitively

appealing?
a collection of impulses and subconscious processes, built on past and present
experiences, these impulses can be wrong sometimes. Intuition requires past
experiences to be successful.
As we can see, both intuition and logic have their own set of strengths of weakness.
Therefore, we can never have an explanation that is pro-intuitive or pro-logic. As
discussed above, successful explanations bloom from an operation of both intuition
and logic, depending on what suits the situation. In areas of natural sciences and
mathematics, logic will invariably prosper over intuition. But this does not mean we
completely disregard intuitive feelings, as sometimes, when theory goes berserk and
the hypothesis is in dispute with the result, we have to rely on our intuition. Similarly,
in areas of social sciences and ethics, what may seem intuitively appealing may as
well be correct but without a logical justification, is often meaningless.
Warren Buffet may make his investment decisions worth $60 billion on intuition, but
he never disregards the logistics of a business. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov
may be able to look 10 moves ahead for a logical justification for the move he makes,
but even he claims to have made moves out of theory because it feels right. What is
important is that intuition unlike logic, differs from person to person. We have the
same set of formulae, same set of rules, same set of guidelines when following logic,
but intuition differs from person to person. If logic was always right, then perhaps all
business entrepreneurs would be successful, all scientific theories would remain the
same, and wars would never happen. Successful entrepreneurs are not successful in
the dynamic environment they work in because every single decision they made has
been based on logic. Scientific theories would never be replaced by more appropriate
theories, had it not been for intuition. And without World War One and World War
Two shedding light to the destruction of wars, the Cold War may never have been
avoided. Logically both the wars seem to be a mistake because it led to the death of
millions, but if we look at the bigger picture, things could have gotten far worse. Far,
far worse. No explanation based purely on logic is right. And the same holds true for
intuition. And this is why; real explanations emerge only from a correct allocation of
the two ways of knowing, and not from discarding either.
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Candidate Name: Biraj Khanal

Candidate Number: 002332-008

When should we discard explanations that are intuitively

appealing?
Bibliography
Links:
1. Oxford Dictionary
[http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/intuition] - Intuition
[http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/logic] - Logic
Accessed on: 20th November 2011
2. Wikipedia
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(psychology)>] - Intuition
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett] Warren Buffet
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov] Gary Kasparov
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#cite_note-3] Albert Einstein
Accessed on: 20th November
3. Albert Einstein and E=mc2
[http://www.stresscure.com/hrn/einstein.html]
Accessed on: 26th November 2011
4. Body Shop
[http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/valuescampaigns/assets/pdf/Values_report_lowres_v2.pdf]
[http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/values-campaigns/against-animal-testing.aspx]
Accessed on: 14th December
5. YouTube
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij34urdP4-c] - Intuition
Accessed on 27th November 2011

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