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Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

THE NATURAL HISTORY of INTUITION. St Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church Knoxville, TN Sunday, May 10, 2009. Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee. THE NATURAL HISTORY of INTUITION. St Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church Knoxville, TN

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Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

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  1. THE NATURAL HISTORY of INTUITION St Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church Knoxville, TN Sunday, May 10, 2009 Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

  2. THE NATURAL HISTORY of INTUITION St Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church Knoxville, TN Sunday, May 10, 2009 Neil Greenberg Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee

  3. THE NATURAL HISTORY of INTUITION • We possess within us a model of the world as we have experienced it (known directly or through others) • This includes a model of our selves (known directly or through others).

  4. OBJECTIVES • INTUITIONDESCRIBED / DEFINED • BIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND of INTUITION(“NATURAL HISTORY, DEEP ETHOLOGY”) • SOURCES of CONFIDENCE(in an intuitive BELIEF)

  5. INTUITION DESCRIBED / DEFINED “… ability to sense or know immediately without reasoning." “… understanding without apparent effort, quick and ready insight seemingly independent of previous experiences or empirical knowledge.”

  6. INTUITION DESCRIBED / DEFINED “experience of a clinical situation as a whole, to solve a problem or reach a decision with limited concrete information (Schraeder and Fischer, 1986) “the sudden perception of a pattern in a seemingly unrelated series of events…. Beyond what is visible to the senses” (Gerrity, 1987 p. 65). “the integration of forms of knowing in a sudden realization [which] precipitates an analytical process which facilitates action in patient/client care.” (Rovithis & Parissopoulos 2005)

  7. INTUITION DESCRIBED / DEFINED • Because INTUITION draws on resources we may not be consciously aware of • …the “essential tension” [between innovation and tradition (~ empiricism and rationalism)] between these sources of action must be resolved • A tension often manifest as a dichotomy of consciousness (such as “heart and mind” or “impulse and reason” or “non-conscious and conscious cognition”)

  8. INTUITION DESCRIBED / DEFINED • INTUITION has much in common with CREATIVITY In that it involves perceptions, thoughts, or actions that are more-or-less informed by … • intercommunications between conscious and non-conscious knowledge.

  9. "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.“ --Albert Einstein

  10. INTUITION … INSPIRATION Joan: . . . you must not talk to me about my voices. Robert: How do you mean? Voices? Joan: I hear voices telling me what to do. They come from God. Robert: They come from your imagination ! Joan: Of course. That is how the messages of God come to us.

  11. INTUITION … PERSPIRATION “Genius is one per cent inspiration … ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”

  12. NATURAL HISTORY of INTUITION “Ethology” is the discipline that seeks to understand the causes and consequences of natural behavioral patterns. This integrative perspective is nicknamed DEEP ETHOLOGY: • Development(change within individuals, learning) • Ecology(ever-changing context in which organisms must meet their needs) • Evolution(change between generations, genes, memes) • Physiology(internal mechanisms that maintain homeostasis, health, and mechanisms (stress) for coping with needs not met)

  13. NATURAL HISTORY - DEVELOPMENT Development (change within individuals: • Genetic programs (more-or-less open or closed) • Maturation • Experience(direct and indirect (observational) learning) • Latent learning (learning you are unaware of)

  14. The Natural History of Intuition: DEVELOPMENT: Neuroplasticity Neuroplasticity: Highly experienced meditators have much greater basal activity levels in their left prefrontal cortices than non-meditators (Richard Davidson group at Wisconsin-Madison)

  15. NATURAL HISTORY - ECOLOGY • Ecology (ever-changing context in which coping occurs) • Challenges to meeting needs (limiting factors, selection pressures) • optimization

  16. NATURAL HISTORY - EVOLUTION • Evolution(change between generations; genes, memes) • Direct & indirect fitness • Adaptive change. epigenesis • Continuity … the immortal gene … • Blind variation – competition -- selective retention • Past environments, present vestigial traits

  17. NATURAL HISTORY - PHYSIOLOGY • Physiology(internal mechanisms that maintain homeostasis (balance of critical functions), health) • Copes with routine variation in challenges to meeting needs • Copes with urgent challenges to meeting needs (stressors) and reallocates resources to most vital systems for most basic needs

  18. CONFIDENCE in a BELIEF The relative confidence we have in the veracity of a belief is • Attributable to CORRESPONDENCE (“tests” to see if perceptions match the real world), and • COHERENCE (weaves tested percepts into a narrative that enables predictions about the consequences of one’s actions) • reciprocal interactions between these faculties confers more or less CONFIDENCE

  19. SUBLINICAL STRESS affect OUTCOMES STRESS (in moderation) is an essential coping mechanism When stressed, sensory reception is enhanced(eg, pupils dilate), and energy available to specific functional modules in the brain is reallocated(eg, prefrontal cortex may be by-passed), affecting the outcome. This is easy because multiple parallel paths of information through the organism are in continual interaction, even competition.

  20. COGNITIVE PSYCHOL RESEARCH the "deliberation-without-attention" hypothesis Dijksterhuis tested the idea that simple choices(such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts)indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but that choices in complex matters(such as between different houses or different cars)should be left to unconscious thought. Five separate experiments confirmed the hypothesis …conscious thought is rule-based and very precise but requires attention, while unconscious thought can conform to rules in that it detects recurring patterns… --Dijksterhuis et al. 2006

  21. “When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. . . .” Freud speaking to Reik

  22. BRAIN RESEARCH Nonconscious stimuli affect the cognitive control system fMRI was used to watch brains as people made judgments about upcoming words or sounds after having been primed by subliminal (nonconscious) stimuli that indicated which kind of judgement would be required. When primed with a “misleading” stimulus (indicating an alternative task) performance was impaired. This indicates that, contrary to current understanding, the cognitive control system in the prefrontal cortex does not depend exclusively on conscious information Hakwan & Passingham 2007

  23. TRUTH in the BRAIN LEFT HEMISPHERE Coherence: creates a “stable and internally consistent belief system” (Ramachandran 1998) Probabilistic reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Abstract object recognition (Marsolek 1999) RIGHT HEMISPHERE Correspondence: tests reality and if damaged, confabulation runs rampant (Ramachandran 1998) Deductive reasoning (Osherson et al 1998) Specific object recognition (Marsolek 1999) Kant: "The senses cannot think, the understanding cannot see.”

  24. PRACTICE Correspondences Narrowly focused External locus of control Direct experience, empirical THEORY Coherence Pattern recognition Internal locus of control More rational, interrelated networks of experiences The DIVIDED DISCIPLINE Kant: "The senses cannot think, the understanding cannot see.”

  25. If we perceive a dichotomy, has something whole been divided? The DIVIDED DISCIPLINE Coherence and correspondence work together to create knowledge Or is it more of a balance between two alternative ways of knowing?

  26. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . . (Talmud)

  27. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

  28. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

  29. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

  30. We see the world not as it is, But as we are . . .

  31. "Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens" --Ralph Waldo Emerson

  32. Searching for truth...creating connections... We make the road by walking Antonio Muchado

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