Science and Intuition
Science and Intuition, They Match. Some Quotes to Prove It.
Famous scientists, like Einstein, Capra, Da Vinci, and others have told us how intuition shaped their world.
Science, intuition, and using your complete mind, fed by all senses. It might seem contradictory. But it’s not. Some famous scientists have always used their intuition to show them the path of wisdom.
They combined all of their senses (including sixth sense…) with logic and reason to come to their great insights. Not only cold facts, knowledge without a heart, but a combined knowing shaped their minds.
Why do I find this important to know? In this story, I reveal some details.
I found my own intuition rather late in life. And I hope other people will find theirs, too. It helps to have an open mind. Inclusive. And full of wisdom instead of just cold, specialist knowledge with disregard for the connections.
Our world would be a better place if we would train our intuition. And our science would be wiser, more ethical…
Better equipped to find the innovations needed to combine our natural systems with our human systems. Creating the abundant future we all long for…
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein, the German-born theoretical physicist, was a famous one for his intuition. The Nobel prize winner (Physics, 1921) developed the theory of relativity. And is known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2. Perhaps the world’s most famous equation ever.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
— Albert Einstein.
He also said:
“All great achievements in science start from intuitive knowledge, namely, in axioms, from which deductions are then made. … Intuition is the necessary condition for the discovery of such axioms.”
— Albert Einstein
Fritjof Capra
Another physicist, the Austrian-born American Fritjof Capra, is a great user of intuition as well. He is my hero because he wrote The Systems View of Life, a book on systemic thinking and the human connection to ecosystems.
But he also wrote the book The Tao of Physics. It has been published in 43 editions in 23 languages. From that book comes the following quote.
“Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science. But man needs both.”
— Fritjof Capra
He also describes talks he had with other famous scientists, like Werner Heisenberg.
“Heisenberg told me that these talks [with Bengali poet, writer and musician Rabindranath Tagore] had helped him a lot with his work in physics, because they showed him that all these new ideas in quantum physics were in fact not all that crazy. He realized there was, in fact, a whole culture that subscribed to very similar ideas. Heisenberg said that this was a great help for him. Niels Bohr had a similar experience when he went to China.” — Fritjof Capra interviewed by Renee Weber in the Holographic Paradigm.
Leonardo Da Vinci
In our current times, we would have called Leonardo Da Vinci a polymath. His interests included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography.
He is, of course, widest known for his painting the Mona Lisa which is on display in the Louvre museum in Paris.
He was constantly studying nature to know more and base his science upon natural principles. Several books have been written about his scientific work. Like ‘Leonardo The First Scientist’ by Australian writer Michael White.
Leonardo was very much an advocate of understanding things, like all scientists. But he used all his senses to understand. This is a quote from his notebooks I like very much.
“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe was best known for Faust, a drama play, and considered by many the greatest work of German literature. But he was a keen researcher of nature as well. His first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy.
In several books and study programs, Goethe science is described as a science in which the researcher identifies with a phenomenon and experiences the object from the inside out.
Daniel Christian Wahl wrote an interesting article about it.
“We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an atmosphere of which we do not know what is stirring in it, or how it is connected with our own spirit.”
— Goethe
Guy Consolmagno
Guy Consolmagno, an American research astronomer and physicist said something along the same lines.
“A scientist works largely by intuition. Given enough experience, a scientist examining a problem can leap to an intuition as to what the solution ‘should look like.’ … Science is ultimately based on insight, not logic.”
— Guy Consolmagno.
Isaac Asimov
One last quote I want to share with you is from Isaac Asimov, Professor of biochemistry. He talks about art and science and how people assume incorrectly that art is always emotional and science always rational.
They can’t be more wrong according to his view.
“How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.”
— Isaac Asimov.
Conclusion
Whatever conclusion anyone might draw, it’s okay. For me personally, it’s clear. My intuition has become part of me. It will show me the path that’s meant for me and give me insights along the way.
It shapes my rational writing and poetic art. Both.
It also makes me productive because the right puzzle pieces will light up in a day. And I don’t have to tire myself with all the other chaotic things that happen around me.
Of course, I welcome all comments from others who either have embraced their intuition or rather not do so at all…
And if you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or my website. Or somewhere in nature sharpening my intuition…
