Intuition and Common Sense (and Instinct)

Send us Fan Mail Intuition is the ability of the brain to recognize processes and patterns without consciously studying them. It is a very powerful tool but cannot be relied upon. It is the source of many false conclusions. We commonly mistake intuition for instinct. Both are happening outside our conscious perception. Instinct is the collection of decisions granted by genetics that are meant to guide self-aware creatures to better survivability. These decisions generally lead to: more food, more protection, more babies. Everything else is intuition. Putting on an aggressive front to intimidate other people is a product of instinct. Having a knack for picking stocks on the stock market is not an instinct, it is intuition. Common sense is the collection of common thoughts, concepts or ideas that are assumed to be held by two or more parties who are all part of a conversation. We need common sense to make our social lives bearable. Try having a conversation without the collection of assumptions we usually use and it would sound like the EULA of everything on the internet. Common sense is a consistent source of miscommunication in our lives and should not be used for logical arguments. If "it's common sense" is the answer this really means that the person giving the answer does not want to bother properly forming the answer or logical argument. They are, instead, hoping the listener understands on their own. Almost everything the layperson knows about physics comes to them by way of "intuition" and "common sense". Everyone knows that they must plug in the coffee maker to make it work. This is "common sense".