ALLAMA IQBAL AND EDMUND HUSSERL ON INTUITION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

• Published date: 30 June 2021

1. Introduction:

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, scope, validity, methods and limits of knowledge. Intuition is one of the sources of knowledge and is used as a tool to analyse reality. The word ‘intuition' was introduced by scholastics for the very first time - it was derived from Latin word intuitioor intueor which means to ‘look'. Intuition as such cannot be mixed with abstract knowledge, conscious analysis and rational thinking. It is most personal and immediate signal one can receive from any higher authority. Being an introspective or internal source of knowledge, it is the most direct perceptual knowledge which a perceiver can evidently perceive. One can say that intuition is not something that is haphazard or is unconsciously performed but it is like a series of thoughts that run swiftly through mind without being conscious of mediating steps.

The scope of scholastic notion of intuition, however, was restricted because it was unable to provide justification for its grounds in modern mechanical vision of science.

In Islamic theology, however, the word intuition is used insuch specialized ways as ‘kashaf' and ‘ilham' - signifying God's communication with a believer to convey the knowledge of the unseen. This source of connectedness with higher deity is not new or limited to one religion. Even the famous Greek philosopher Socrates claimed of having ‘intuitions'. He believed that God communicates with him to teach him the pearls of wisdom.1 On a parallel note, Allah says in Quran; “He alone is the All Knower of the unseen and He revels to none of His unseen, except to a Messenger whom He has chosen.”2 Aristotle does not speak of intuition directly. However, he presents perfect justification for such reflective intuition in his theory of thinking-by declaring thinking as the realization of forms. He states that this realization is a real and direct representation the external reality. These sort of forms share the same powers, properties and relations with the other forms.

Hence, our soul can recognize other interrelations and forms. For him the mind literally is the justification of existence of all object of thinking.3

Just as Descartes considers immediate intuitive awareness of the self as the most authentic and, in turn, makes it the starting point of all knowledge, Kant also gives special importance to intuition. Intuition for Kant is not a source of knowledge but a representation. He considered that our representations to objects could be of two possible ways; either direct or indirect.4 These representations give meaning to intuition in opposition to general concepts. Intuition for him is neither a source of truth, nor there is any link between intuition, sense perception, or imagination. The idea of intuition raised by Kant changed the meaning of the term and gave it a special transcendental sense as a priori knowledge. In the same spirit, both Husserl and Iqbal consider Intuition as an infallible, authentic, and transcendental source of knowledge that connects us with the real.

In this study, we will try to make sense of the views of both the thinkers on the topic and will try to bring forth their convergence and divergence by further taking into account the strength and explanatory power of the views. The study becomes important as it tries to unleash the methodological similarity of two philosophical traditions (i. e., Eastern and Western) that are generally considered to be divergent by making an appeal of two important representatives of the traditions.

2. Phenomenal Consciousness of Husserl

According to Husserl, process of intuition involves three steps which include;

1. Empirical Intuition

2. Reflective Intuition

3. Abstract Intuition

To start with, our senses supply us certain objects which we perceive and store in the form of intuition. Our consciousness after getting such empirical evidence (empirical intuition) starts working on them on its own. It processes, stores, manages and reflects them (reflective intuition). Finally, on the basis of the first two it approaches the essences of the objects through abstraction (abstract intuition). The process is summarized by Husserl by saying that “Seeing an essence is therefore intuition.”5 For Husserl, intuition as a perceptual consciousness has hyle which is unstructured raw material and is also known as hyletic data. This raw unstructured data (visuals or other data) is being informed by consciousness or intellect which is further unified into a single set of appearance of an object. Both form and hyle make an object's existence mind-independent.

This intuition therefore not only gives our consciousness an empirical object with matter and form but also a hyle which is separated from essence in itself.

Phenomenological experience is therefore, related with three kinds of intuition, i.e., empirical, reflective and abstract. While empirical focuses the sensory awareness of objects, reflective emphasises on memory storage and abstract intuition, deals with the instantiations of...