I had an English teacher in high school who was trying to introduce the class to the concept of "intuition." We were about to read some of the New England Transcendentalists, who laid great store on it.
"Mr. Enright," he asked me, "how do you know that Mr. Farina is in the room?"
"I can turn around and see him," I replied. He sat behind me, in alphabetical order.
"How else?" he pressed.
"I could hear him."
"How else?"
"I could smell him." Big laugh from the class. I regretted that. I was just rattling off sensory modalities. I didn't mean to imply that Mr. Farina was smelly.
The teacher went on to propose that perhaps I could logically deduce that Mr. Farina was behind me. (Suppose I saw him enter the room, kept my eyes on the only door, did not see him leave.)
I assented.
Finally, the teacher proposed that I might "just have a feeling - an intuition" that Mr. Farina was in the room.
I resisted this idea.
Just feeling it's so
Doesn't mean you really know.
Women and professional poker players alike depend thoroughly on a keen intuition. Either can astound you with an accurate perception of apparently hidden information.
ReplyDeleteFor all that, women are rarely excellent cardplayers! The reason for this I reserve for my perenially forthcoming book...