Mind over Machine: the Power of Human Intuition - Essay Example

English 12 October Intuition As a rule, people do not pay much attention to their intuition. However, it is worth doing this. If there were an opportunity to use intuition in a proper way and see how other people think, there would be fewer problems and we would understand the world around us better. It is necessary to stress that Dan Arley’s lecture is a real godsend for those who are eager to find out more about intuition. According to Arley’s point of view, there are many various intuitions. Those people, who trust their intuition and use it in everyday life, are sure that they are right. However, it is not so. Arley states that it is necessary to test and improve human intuition, because negligence in this sphere may lead to negative consequences. This is easily proved by the example from his lecture on intuition. Once Arley was in hospital because of serious burn and his conflict with nurses helped him to learn more information about intuition. The nurses did not want to take the bandages slowly and no arguments could change their point of view. However, Dan felt that it would be better to listen to his intuition. He was sure that it is better for him to do the above-mentioned action not so fast. The nurses had much practice and did not wanted to list to a patient. He had no voice during the treatment. Nevertheless, in some time Arley had conducted several experiments that proved the nurses’ mistake. It is really less painful to take bandages slowly. It means that nurses’ intuition was wrong and they need to change it. If they listened to Dan Arley’s intuition and tested their own feeling concerning the subject of conflict, a lot of patients would feel less pain. It is not very difficult to find the similar situation in everyday life. A lot of problems may occur if people do not listen to their intuition and neglect other’s point of view. Once I watched the film with an episode that is relevant to the theme of intuition. A young woman was to go by plane to another country together with her family. She belonged to those people who always trusted intuition and feelings. Suddenly she felt fear; her intuition told her to return home. This character followed this feeling and made all the members of her family to postpone a travel. In a couple of hours the news announced “the plane was seen blazing down behind the hill, where it crashed.” A lot of people died because they had not listened to the young girl warning about the would-be catastrophe. This is on more example demonstrating that negligence of human intuition may lead to bad consequences. It is necessary to stress that Dan Arley is sure that some kinds of intuitions are just irrationalities. To prove this, he uses an example of cheating. It turns out that a person cheats less when he/she thinks about morality. From theoretical point of view cheating is distinguished as a cost-benefit analysis. After several experiments it turned out that the majority of people cheat by little bit. Moreover, there is a certain level of cheating when people can benefit from it. So, it is necessary to remind people of their morality if we want to stop cheating in educational institutions or any other places. It turns out that intuition occupies a very important role in human life. In fact, it is applied several times during one day. We even do not notice this. What are the examples of these intuitions? They are the following ones: An attempt to guess if your friend likes one of the gifts or surprises you are going to present him/her. You may try to choose the gift according to your intuition. However, in the majority of cases people call it just the capacity to give good presents. If in the evening you are trying to do several things at once while television advertising is on, it means that you try to foresee how long the break between the series of your favorite film will be. Intuition is applied when you have no time to try a dress on, but guess that it is your color. If you are able to find out what is the best time to spread the new, this also is the sign of your ability to use intuition. Dan Arley’s lecture really changes a traditional point of view upon intuition. Moreover, his findings hint at the connection between knowledge and intuition. For instance, in the example with a plane catastrophe a young woman seemed to know that something would happen. As far as I know, intuition means “in to you” (from Latin). It is something hidden in our souls. It is an abstract notion, as well as knowledge. Both intuition and knowledge appear if a person has experience related to the situation he/she is thinking over. Perhaps, the woman has already experienced the situation when her intuition helped her to avoid troubles. The same can be told about Arley’s situation with nurses. He got to know that taking bandages quickly is really bad with the help of several experiments. They made up Dan’s experience that helped him to find out the truth. So, from my perspective, intuition and knowledge are connected because one needs knowledge to trust intuition and can make sure that his/her knowledge is right by means of intuition. It seems that these two notions cannot exist separately. Arley’s lecture helps us to understand that every person has intuition, but do not know how to apply it properly. Moreover, if it is used, we do not know that it is intuition that has helped us to handle some problem and find the right way out of a complicated situation. People should pay more attention to the feelings and thoughts coming to their head. However, it is necessary to test all of them in order to avoid problems and conflicts with others. It is a mistake and an example of wrong intuition to neglect other people’s point of view. There is no guarantee that your intuition is the right one, especially if you have no experience in the sphere you are going to deal with by means of intuition. So, people would become happier and understand each other better if they could apply their intuitions and listen to other’s points of view attentively. Works Cited Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy: The Enlightenment. New York: Continuum Books, 2003. Print. Dreyfus, Hubert. Mind over Machine: the Power of Human Intuition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print. Read More