What to rely on in a world where traditions are outdated, experts cannot come to a consensus, and the criteria for the norm are as shaky as ever? Only on your own intuition.
Who and what can we trust in our rapidly changing world? Before, when we were overcome by doubts, we could rely on the ancients, experts, traditions. They gave criteria for evaluation, and we used them at our discretion. In the area of feelings, in the understanding of morality or in professional terms, we had inherited norms from the past that we could rely on.
But today the criteria are changing too quickly. Moreover, sometimes they become obsolete with the same inevitability as smartphone models. We don’t know what rules to follow anymore. We can no longer refer to tradition when answering questions about family, love, or work.
This is the result of an unprecedented acceleration of technological progress: life changes as quickly as the criteria that allow us to evaluate it. We need to learn to judge life, professional pursuits, or love stories without resorting to pre-determined criteria.
When it comes to intuition, the only criterion is the absence of criteria.
But making judgments without using criteria is the definition of intuition.
When it comes to intuition, the only criterion is the absence of criteria. It has nothing but my «I». And I’m learning to trust myself. I decide to listen to myself. In fact, I have almost no choice. With the ancients no longer shedding light on the modern and the experts arguing with each other, it’s in my best interest to learn to rely on myself. But how to do that? How to develop the gift of intuition?
The philosophy of Henri Bergson answers this question. We need to learn to accept those moments when we are fully «present in ourselves.» In order to achieve this, one must first refuse to obey «generally accepted truths.»
As soon as I agree with an indisputable truth accepted in society or in some religious doctrine, with supposed «common sense» or with professional tricks that have proven effective for others, I do not allow myself to use intuition. So, you need to be able to «unlearn», to forget everything learned before.
To have intuition means to dare to go in the opposite direction, from the particular to the general.
The second condition, adds Bergson, is to stop submitting to the dictatorship of urgency. Try to separate the important from the urgent. This is not easy, but it allows you to win back some space for intuition: I invite myself to listen first of all to myself, and not to the cries of “urgent!”, “quickly!”.
My whole being is involved in intuition, and not just the rational side, which loves criteria so much and proceeds from general concepts, then applying them to particular cases. To have intuition means to dare to go in the opposite direction, from the particular to the general.
When you look at a landscape, for example, and think, «This is beautiful,» you listen to your intuition: you start from a particular case and allow yourself to make judgments without applying ready-made criteria. After all, the acceleration of life and the mad dance of criteria before our eyes gives us a historic chance to develop the power of intuition.
Can we use it?