The Power of Intuition

The Key to Resilient Design and Eco-Conscious Living

Being intuitive and using one’s intuition to navigate and draw conclusions is generally an unwelcome methodology when performing theoretical research. Intuition is viewed as superficial, unserious, and overly subjective.

But perhaps closing ourselves off to intuition denies us straightforward insights?

Perhaps gaining intuitive insight into objects or environments is a way of “checking in” to our fundamental human attachment to our physical surroundings— which appears to be lost when we feel detached from nature, from materials and textures, from sensations and atmospheres, and start doubting our sensory, bodily wisdom.

My hypothesis is that this kind of detachment causes unsustainable behavior, which materializes in a use-and-throw-away mentality, because, simply put, if we don’t feel connected to our physical surroundings, we are less inclined to take care of and maintain them. And, that exercising one’s intuition is a vital part of both the sustainable design practice and sustainable living. When consumers become increasingly intuitively and sensuously aware, they demand products that can nourish that awareness within them, and when designers are able to tune into their intuitive compass their ability to create resilient, anti-trendy design-objects that meet deeply felt consumer needs (rather than fleeting trend-based ones) increases.

Drawing conclusions based on intuition is not the equivalent of basing every part of a decision-making process on subtle feelings or emotions. In the late-modern, secularized, and highly rational parts of the world, intuition is often associated with irrational feelings, superstition, and/or worthless gut-feelings, and hence linked to non-valid resolutions.

In my approach to working with the intuitive compass, intuition is not necessarily anti-rational nor is it fruitless or void due to its subjective character. Intuition can be grounding — and rather than being subjective it can be a gateway to understanding intersubjective elements and basic assumptions.

Intuition links us to universal themes that are relevant and common to all human beings, cross culturally. Intuition is, or should be, the last or perhaps the first stop when making decisions regarding the creation of long-lasting objects, or when concluding upon societal, cultural behavioral patterns.

In other words, when gathering insight into tendencies or predominant lifestyles of a time (in order to support or challenge these by creating sustainable design-objects), making use of one’s intuitive compass can be highly beneficial.

But, why is intuition often viewed as an invalid way of reaching insight and academic knowledge?

The negative views on intuition are often linked to the standpoint that it lacks analytical processes and rational conclusions that concern anyone but the perceiving subject, and that hence, intuition is too subjective and too feelings-based to draw any general conclusions upon. Going with one’s gut feeling just doesn’t seem as valid as rationalizing your way to drawing a conclusion.

But what if intuitive reasoning is or can be more than a gut feeling, and what if intuition could be a beneficial supplement to an analytical process?

Or, what if your intuitive compass can lead you to conclusions that no rational analytical approach could ever provide you with? The answer to this question might not be “Yes, it likely can” when it comes to hunches and to allowing personal experiences and convictions to guide a design process or other decision-making processes.

But if we find a perceptible way to tune into our intuitive compass, we might be able to achieve a pre-rational, deeply felt understanding of the why’s and how’s behind a seemingly irrational intuitive hunch. Intuition can be described as the power of attaining knowledge or insights that cannot be obtained through reasoning.

In his book Thinking Fast and Slow Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman defines intuitive thinking as being flawed. According to Kahneman, our associative memory, which is what triggers intuition, sees only what it wants and expects to see, much like our attention (if you are pregnant, for example, and your whole world evolves around this new state that you are in, you will likely all of a sudden see pregnant women everywhere as well as prams and babies and breastfeeding mothers, and experience pregnancy being discussed constantly in the radio and on television). Therefore, when using intuition as a guideline we very often jump to conclusions, because our mind manages to construct coherence in whichever story we seek to tell.

This coherence makes us feel overconfident, probably because, says Kahneman, intuition is often used for past thoughts that turned out to be true. For example, when something good (or bad) happens, we tend to say, “I knew that was going to happen,” meaning that we intuitively knew, or that we had a gut feeling that what happened was exactly what was going to happen.

But did we really know, or are we just telling ourselves that we did? How can we separate between intuition and expectations, worries and hope? According to Kahneman, subjectivity, whether it is right or wrong, feels the same. And hence, intuitive decision-making is flawed.

I don’t disagree with this description of the weaknesses of intuition, but my take on intuition and the benefit of being able to actively use one’s intuitive compass — professionally as well as privately — constitutes a different perspective, which is largely inspired by phenomenology (which I will clarify shortly).

The point Kahneman is making about subjectivity is valid. It is indeed very hard, if not impossible, to differentiate between right and wrong hunches, and we tend to only express ourselves on the incidences, when we were right about something. This is also the reason why, when working intuitively or making use of our intuitive compass, we need to rise from the bias conclusions and fleeting hunches on insignificant trends, and actively seek to tune into a deeply felt understanding of the intersubjective, general, long-lasting certainties regarding life, human interconnectivity, and our physical surroundings in order to see the big picture.

As mentioned, my definition of intuition is closely connected to phenomenology, primarily because intuitive insights unite us with our physical surroundings and milieu. Such insights might be beneficial in relation to sustainable design, habits, and object-usage.

Therefore, let’s take a broadened look at the phenomenological movement as it is represented by its founder, namely the German philosopher Edmund Husserl.

Phenomenology is, briefly put, the study of the structures or the appearances of things, and the way that human beings experience the world. The term derives from the Greek words phainomenon, which means “that which appears” and logos: “study.” Focus lies on the subjective or first-person point of view, and hence on human sense-experiences: i.e., visual experiences as well as scent, taste, and textural experiences. But also, human thoughts, imagination, emotions, memories, and desires are focal points in phenomenological studies.

Phenomenology is occupied with understanding the mechanism of our conscious experiences and their potential for providing us with crucial insight into human existence and for broadening our understanding of our physical surroundings and of human interconnectivity.

The phenomenological approach to human understanding is of great relevance when clarifying the durable design experience and the components of sustainable object-design. Unless we consciously appreciate a design-object and are open minded—or rather, open-sentient— to the aesthetic experience that accompanies a well-made, thoroughly thought-out object we are less inclined to value and appreciate it and hence to keep it and maintain it. Hence, the sustainable designer must seek to open the recipient’s senses.

Intuition, in Husserl’s perspective, isn’t a special capacity in the human mind, it is basically a label for immediate knowledge of any sort. Through intuition, components of reality are given to us, or suddenly seem clear to us. Intuitions are ultimately our capability to grasp and articulate universals or deep structures, rather than particulars. Intuition is therefore not a medium for the representations of specific, concrete details to the mind; that would be imagination, which Husserl describes as a channel that enables us to create and experiment but that cannot serve as a source of knowledge.

Intuition provides us with an insight into the given, or into whatever is set or “fixed.” It provides us with the ability to see through specifics and to grasp their core or common characteristics. Intuition differs from pure sense-perception because when we perceive something with our senses the external thing appears immediately or as soon as our glance falls upon it without serving us an understanding of the particular thing, whereas intuition is a direct vision of objects, and hence an immediate form of knowledge. And so, if our intuition is our most immediate ability to gain access or fully understand (and appreciate) our physical surroundings and human interconnectivity, then this ability ought to be cultivated and refined throughout life.

To be continued…

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