For Descartes, intuition is when you know
something a priori, though pure reason,
without having to go through any steps to
do so. He distinguishes this from
deduction, which is the power of our mind
to go through a chain of intuitions and
arrive at a conclusion.

This is different than many of us think
about intuition as a "gut feeling." Many
people today would say that "gut feelings"
are generated by cues our subconscious
mind picks up--for example, subtle
behaviors of people who are lying or
acting suspiciously which we can't
consciously ennumerate.

Descartes and Locke might both agree
that what many accept as "common
sense" is questionable. Descartes might
suggest that things such as "the earth is
stationary and the sun revolves around it"
or "you should beleive in what you can
see and touch" are taken for "common
sense" but false. Locke might suggest
that "everyone has an innate sense of
right and wrong" is another such belief.

What's interesting about Descartes is at
the end he comes full circle and ends up
endorsing the common sense view to a
great extent, but only after a long
philosophical argument.

Prof. Borrowdale

Prof. Borrowdale