Hmm you both have some good points.
@Daniel:
I do believe everyone progresses spiritually with age. This may not mean everone's mind remains open, or that everyone gets somewhere intellectually. But all change is for the better. That's how life is designed.
I think if you look more closely into your own mind, you will see that these "intuitions" and "effortless understandings" you've had so far have ultimately come from past reasonings that occured inside you, perhaps without you being fully aware of it. The brain suddenly puts 2 and 2 together, as it were - seemingly out of the blue, but prompted by past struggles to understand. Intense, heartfelt reasonings etch the neural pathways from which intuitive leaps can be made.
Yes, you are right about this, but it matters what you define "reasoning" as. If reasoning is "thinking, trying to find a solution, trying to put 2 and 2 together" then you are absolutely right, I would think. But if you define reasoning more narrowly as "proceeding along logical thought with determined steps in order to reach a certain goal" then I would disagree. Also, much of my "revelations" have come from
experiences that form and combine to produce constellations in my mind that show me the reality (about me). Basically, each experience has served to open my mind a little bit, to give me new food for thought. It is certainly a combination of "reasoning" together with "input from experience" that combines to yield "revelation" or awareness.
Intuition is really better described as a basically rational process taking place in such a manner that we do not witness the process itself clearly, so only its end result pops up. It's a gut calculation, using a mix of senses and memories tuned by the quality of our mental habits (rational capacity).
I agree with this. But notice that this is not about a conscious, effortful process of reaching new areas of thought with willful determination and severely logical, straight-leading steps. It's is not about "reasoning" as a discipline.
But there is also a source of "intuition" that is more about "tapping into" archetypes or shapes or forms that exist in reality or the mind, without really depending on a gut calculation of past data. For instance, in my fantasies of sexual roleplay, I explore the human sexual mind in relation to domination/submission, and I find that these things are "baked into" the fabric of the human mind. Therefore, the mind can easily show me these things, if I attune to it through imaginative conversation and interaction. Also, during this game, my mind feeds me with the exact perfect things to say or do, IF I am fearless and open. There is genius in that.
Also, there is a powerful feeling of love, of intuition, that guides me on my way. This does not arise from the mind, but rather the heart, or the soul. Of course it combines with my rational understanding of things.
It's interesting you're using as part of your reasoning a highly technical, medical example about the two brain halves. Since you have such an interest in scientifically beefing up your thought, you should know that people having a hemispherectomy, having one brain halve removed, still have their imagination, intuition as well logic intact. It appears these functions are way more integrated than people used to think. Anyway, it's always better to stick with pure logic or philosophical arguments when one tries to show the truth of ones philosophy.
Well we are living in a material universe with material wisdom. I know that either brain half can take on the functions of the other. In a baby, these functions are not even specialized. I would think the specialization could be reversed, and one half of the brain could learn again to take on both aspects of functioning. It would be silly to not take into account aspects of the material universe that shows you truth about philosophical positions.
It is this tendency to remain purely philosophical, rational, and logical, that disconnects you from your deeper wisdom and understanding.
Your words and actions are your understanding, you're living your current understandings and misunderstandings as well as those of your environment or background.
Yes, but they are often new and precede conscious awareness. As such they weren't arrived at by way of a conscious reasoning process, but rather an unconscious one, if that is the case. And I would say it was a process of becoming aware of something (getting a new perspective) rather than arriving at some new conclusion (getting a new thought).
Contradictions can point to muddled thinking, this is true, but you must learn to distinguish between contradictions that point to a
lack of awareness and contradictions that indicate a heightened sense of awareness being found inside of them.