Intuition is Evidence

Abstract

Intuition is a psychological state that often accompanies some propositions, particularly when engaging in thought experiments. I argue that these intuitive states can sometimes serve as evidence for the propositions they accompany. To support this claim, I present a novel argument for the evidentiary role of intuition: Some philosophical arguments rely solely on intuition for at least one of their premises. Some conclusions from such arguments are justified. If the conclusion of an argument is (i) justified and (ii) justified by its premises, then premises of that argument are justified. Therefore, all premises of such arguments are justified. If all premises of such arguments are justified, then that implies that some premises of such arguments are justified only by intuition. Therefore, intuitions can justify. One virtue of this argument is that it does not require establishing the nature of intuition before demonstrating that it can be justificatory.