Under what circumstances, and to what extent, should we rely on our intuition?
Intuition is a body of thinking that exists both in our conscious and subconscious. We accept it as our most reliable form of emotional response in unfamiliar, suspicious or hostile circumstances, and fall back on it when other methods of rationalisation fail. It exists largely as an instinctive response to return to more settling circumstances. In that sense, it can be said that intuition is our way of relating unfamiliar information on the basis of a combination of more comprehensible truths. Intuition is hence a way of using personal truths to find other truths in certain situations. However, this can be dangerous in that it can lead us directly to presumptions that may not necessarily be true, such as responding to an unaccustomed social situation in a way that its not entirely appropriate for those particular circumstances.
What role should intuition play in our acquisition for knowledge in different Areas of Knowledge?
Relating back to this idea of taking unfamiliar pretenses to familiar ones, intuition can play an incredibly important role in our ability to not only seek new knowledge but recognize where there is knowledge to be found in the first place. For example, with the case of famous scientist and creator of modern atomic structure Ernest Rutherford, had he not intuitively decided to check if any electrons bounced back after firing them at a sheet the presence of an enclosed atomic nucleus may never have been discovered. He had made no prior discoveries or done any recorded research to suggest he had any idea what he may have found should he have made this modification of this experiment. But with the outcome of the experiment he was able to make the link between the nucleus and the rest of the atomic structure, using this new knowledge to enhance his understanding of the old one.