What role does intuition play in

obtaining historical knowledge

Defining intuition

“knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception, a gut-feeling or an impression as examples.”

Defining Historical knowledge

“knowledge about things that have happened in the past”

An example of this could be a gut-feeling about who is a possible suspect at a crime nobody witnessed, a spark

triggering an investigation based on e.g. previously disregarded motives

The real-life situation linked with the KQ

The real life example

An african-american male

convicted in 1983

All-white jury

No murder weapon

One eyewitness, the

girlfriend of another

suspect in the case

Lawyers who never tried

a murder case

Intuition linked

Intuition was a vital part of

both his incarceration and

the reconsideration of the

case

Racism was far more

prominent in the 1980’s

and could be argued to

have played a role in all of

the evidence being

believed

Intuition linked to historical

knowledge

Historical knowledge is

largely based on

trustworthy sources of

information

We as regular students

as examples decide if

we trust some of them

based on intuition

This intuition is the

product of their public

image, their seeming

professionalism and

what we’ve been told

Intuition works differently

in different AOK’s. e.g.

in arts and ethics it plays

a more prominent role

than in for example

natural sciences and

historical knowledge

A hunch based on

intuition may lead to a

breakthrough or it might

be completely wrong

Examples of intuition relating to

historical knowledge

History writers and bias: perspective of post-war history

writers on both the “winning” side and the “losing” side

A fact universally recognized is that winners write history

The winners intuitively write that they were heroic and did

the right thing without acknowledging the negative sides,

The losing might process the events more thoroughly

considering all sides of the story better than the winners.

To conclude

Summary

Intuition in terms of historical knowledge can often be a “spark” that leads to further examination or it might divert us from it

We use intuition to help us decide e.g. trustworthiness

Intuition might divert us into looking at things subjectively since it “feels right” resulting in bias

Conclusion

When evidence is

presented, a quick

conclusion without further

processing can possibly be

drawn

If a quick solution is

needed, e.g. at a crime

scene, intuition might spark

us to process what

happened and who did it