• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

[MBTI General] What is intuition?

Blown Ghost

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
279
MBTI Type
ESFP
MBTI newbie here trying to figure out what intuition is. If sensing types favor instinctual sight/sound/touch/taste/smell what does that leave intuition to be exactly?
 

Lady_X

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
18,235
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
784
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
it's the rest of it. ;)
 

angell_m

Permabanned
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
818
MBTI Type
IxFx
Enneagram
5w4
literally, everything else. you just know without really trying. it's a bit like hocus pocus.

"Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason." - wiki

N: "Something tells me God exists."
S: "God exists because the bible says so."
 

InsatiableCuriosity

New member
Joined
May 20, 2010
Messages
698
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5
The best I have been able to explain iNtuition to others is that iNtuition occurs when we do not overtly take note of our physical environment but our brain subsconsciusly captures detail from which we are then able to identify patterns and rapidly make leaps of association to draw conclusions and make sense of a problem and its solution at some later date.
 

Blown Ghost

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
279
MBTI Type
ESFP
literally, everything else. you just know without really trying. it's a bit like hocus pocus.

"Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason." - wiki

Wouldn't that mean unreason[able]? :shock:

The best I have been able to explain iNtuition to others is that iNtuition occurs when we do not overtly take note of our physical environment but our brain subsconsciusly captures detail from which we are then able to identify patterns and rapidly make leaps of association to draw conclusions and make sense of a problem and its solution at some later date.

Oh, that's a good way to explain. Much thanks.
 

angell_m

Permabanned
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
818
MBTI Type
IxFx
Enneagram
5w4
i edited my post...
now go see who's more unreasonable...
 

Blown Ghost

New member
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
279
MBTI Type
ESFP
N: "Something tells me God exists."
S: "God exists because the bible says so."

So hypothetically the "S" person knows where this indication came from literally and the "N" person doesn't. That seems to fit with InsatiableCuriosity's definition.
 

Night

Boring old fossil
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
4,755
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5/8
The ability to wield metaphor.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
6,180
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
Possibilities, connections and imagination.

The senses see the nice man in the jacket standing around looking innocent.
Intuition 'see' the nice man in the jacket may not be a nice man in a jacket after all.

There is only one of two truths. The nice man in the jacket is really just a nice man in a jacket or the nice man in the jacket is really an awful man who does unlawful things.

Added conclusion.
You walk to the man and ask him for some of his unlawful goodies. The man looks at you as if you just insulted him and walks away. Sensors win. The man was just a nice man in a jacket. You look like an idiot.
 

angell_m

Permabanned
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
818
MBTI Type
IxFx
Enneagram
5w4
So hypothetically the "S" person knows where this indication came from literally and the "N" person doesn't. That seems to fit with InsatiableCuriosity's definition.

N's fantasized about it and wrote the story, so we do know where it came from :yes:
 

redacted

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
4,223
Think of it this way. Divide cognition in its totality into conscious cognition and non-conscious cognition.

Non-conscious cognition is S and N. Conscious cognition is T and F.

Imagine T and F (judgment) being fed a tape of data to make conclusions about. The tape contains S and N stuff (perceiving). Everything on the tape that's about a thing is S, everything that's not about a thing is N. On the judgment side, all conclusions that are true/false/works/doesn't work are T and everything else is F (good/bad/appropriate/inappropriate).

So yeah, intuition is just non-conscious abstract cognition.


Edit: and if you want to talk about intuition types, they're just the people that tend to have less thing-oriented stuff on their tape. Sensing types have more thing-oriented stuff on their tape.
 

SecondBest

Permabanned
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
844
MBTI Type
eNxp
Enneagram
5/7
All good distinctions between intuition and sensory, but I'll add my two cents:

S: More comfortable with the real and known
N: More comfortable with the mysterious and unknown

Actually, that may have made things more confusing. Nevermind. Carry on.




EDIT: Or yeah, what Evan said. That's like a LOT clearer.
 
Last edited:

Amethyst

¡MI TORTA!
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
2,191
MBTI Type
ESTP
Enneagram
7w8
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
N is more comfortable relying on gut-feelings, rather than what they can sense around their environment.

S is more comfortable relying on what they make sense out of their environment, rather than gut-feelings.

That is, if you want it to be defined this simply.
 

Tamske

Writing...
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
1,764
MBTI Type
ENTP
MBTI newbie here trying to figure out what intuition is. If sensing types favor instinctual sight/sound/touch/taste/smell what does that leave intuition to be exactly?

Intuition is about abstract, general ideas; while sensing is about concrete facts. Sensing provides the dots, intuition connects them.
Whenever you are trying to understand or explain a concept, you're probably shifting from facts/examples to generalities and back.

Intuition:
Using symbols and metaphors.
Creating new recipes from existing ones.
Mixing lizards and bats into dragons, improving men into elves or superhumans... in short, imagination(*).

(*) With which I don't want to imply Sensors have no imagination. Of course they have. Even the most extreme Sensors use some intuition to generalize, understand and discuss abstract concepts,... The opposite is true, too. To use the dragon example: it needed the concrete "lizard" and "bat" dots!
 

Asterion

Ruler of the Stars
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
2,331
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Possibilities, connections and imagination.

The senses see the nice man in the jacket standing around looking innocent.
Intuition 'see' the nice man in the jacket may not be a nice man in a jacket after all.

There is only one of two truths. The nice man in the jacket is really just a nice man in a jacket or the nice man in the jacket is really an awful man who does unlawful things.

Added conclusion.
You walk to the man and ask him for some of his unlawful goodies. The man looks at you as if you just insulted him and walks away. Sensors win. The man was just a nice man in a jacket. You look like an idiot.

That's all good Ni wise, but not so much Ne.

Think of it this way. Divide cognition in its totality into conscious cognition and non-conscious cognition.

Non-conscious cognition is S and N. Conscious cognition is T and F.

Imagine T and F (judgment) being fed a tape of data to make conclusions about. The tape contains S and N stuff (perceiving). Everything on the tape that's about a thing is S, everything that's not about a thing is N. On the judgment side, all conclusions that are true/false/works/doesn't work are T and everything else is F (good/bad/appropriate/inappropriate).

So yeah, intuition is just non-conscious abstract cognition.

What you've said there about the tape sounds right. Intuition/Sensing describes what is being recorded. Intuition records patterns, possibilities, ideas and is hence more imaginative and people using it will seem random. Sensing records concrete, usable facts and senses (eg. taste, colour, smell). However, Sensor can learn abstract information, just like an Intuitive can learn facts, it just has to be translated and then recorded I guess.

(sorry evan, I didn't like the way you worded it ;)) + Conclusions stuff between F and T is brilliant :D

lol, here's a random example I accidently made of intuition versus sensing:
person 1 (ISFJ):woke up this morning in a country without a government, hah!
person 2 (ISTJ):I woke up this morning and heard a disturbing sound...
person 3 (????):I woke up in the morning feeling like P-Diddy...
Me:I was in the biggest army, the world had ever seen

ya see, the lyric before that goes: "I woke up this morning with the strangest dream", but without really thinking at all, I jumped to the second lyric and assumed people knew what the first lyric was. My parents (both sensors) told me off for doing that for the first half of my life, and I still do it all the time lol.
 

INTPness

New member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
2,157
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
N "reads between the lines". It looks for the context in which something was said or written.
 

Lady_X

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
18,235
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
784
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Possibilities, connections and imagination.

The senses see the nice man in the jacket standing around looking innocent.
Intuition 'see' the nice man in the jacket may not be a nice man in a jacket after all.

There is only one of two truths. The nice man in the jacket is really just a nice man in a jacket or the nice man in the jacket is really an awful man who does unlawful things.

Added conclusion.
You walk to the man and ask him for some of his unlawful goodies. The man looks at you as if you just insulted him and walks away. Sensors win. The man was just a nice man in a jacket. You look like an idiot.

ni answer how funny...ne answer would be more...hmm...i wonder why he's wearing that jacket...where'd he come from and where's he going...i wonder if it's typical for him to dress that way...does it fit his character or is he playing a part right now? maybe he does this____ for a living...maybe his life is like that__he might struggle with this and be very good at that...and on and on...

actually i guess that's a whole nefi thing there not just ne.
 

IZthe411

Carerra Lu
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
2,585
MBTI Type
INTJ
literally, everything else. you just know without really trying. it's a bit like hocus pocus.

"Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason." - wiki

N: "Something tells me God exists."
S: "God exists because the bible says so."

I'm assuming you are joking here.

S It's more like What I see/hear/taste/smell/feel tells me God exists.
 
Top