Within the Western tradition, it was the philosophers Henri Bergson and Max Scheler who laid out and explored the nonrational power of "intuition" at work in human beings that plays a key role in orienting their thinking and action within the world. As author Adriana Alfaro Altamirano notes, Bergon's and Scheler's philosophical explorations, which paralleled similar developments by other modernist writers, artists, and political actors of the early twentieth century, can yield fruitful insights into the ideas and passions that animate politics in our own time.

The Belief in Intuition shows that intuition (as Bergson and Scheler understood it) leads, first and foremost, to a conception of freedom that is especially suited for dealing with hierarchy, uncertainty, and alterity. Such a conception of freedom is grounded in a sense of individuality that remains true to its "inner multiplicity," thus providing a distinct contrast to and critique of the liberal notion of the self.

Focusing on the complex inner lives that drive human action, as Bergson and Scheler did, leads us to appreciate the moral and empirical limits of liberal devices that mean to regulate our actions "from the outside." Such devices, like the law, may not only carry pernicious effects for freedom but, more troublingly, oftentimes "erase their traces," concealing the very ways in which they are detrimental to a richer experience of subjectivity.

According to Alfaro Altamirano, Bergson's and Scheler's conception of intuition and personal authority puts contemporary discussions about populism in a different light: It shows that liberalism would only at its own peril deny the anthropological, moral, and political importance of the bearers of charismatic authority. Personal authority thus understood relies on a dense, but elusive, notion of personality, for which personal authority is not only consistent with freedom, but even contributes to it in decisive ways.

"The Belief in Intuition is an outstanding work of political theory. Its scholarship is impressive and Alfaro Altamirano writes clearly, often with verve and humor. What I especially admire is how determined she is to bring Bergson and Scheler into dialogue with the canonical authors and mainstream debates of political theory. I recommend it to a wide readership interested in the fields of intellectual history, normative political philosophy, critical theory, democracy and authoritarianism, affect studies, moral psychology, and the future of liberalism."—Alexandre Lefebvre, University of Sydney, Perspectives on Politics

"What if, instead of being locked into a view of the world built up around the individualism of a sovereign, rational subject, whose freedom is shored up externally through institutions and appeals to laws and rights, we could invent different conceptions of what it is to be a subject, and so of sociability and, ultimately, politics? Altamirano argues that two philosophers of intuition, Bergson and Scheler, can help us do this. The author’s intention is to recover features of an alternative path of thinking—a path not taken—pertinent to the conditions we face today"—Suzanne Guerlac, The Review of Metaphysics

"The Belief in Intuition offers a fascinating and highly original exploration of the self in relation to freedom and authority. Juxtaposing Bergson and Scheler with figures ranging from Kant and Nietzsche to Michael Sandel and Hannah Arendt, Adriana Alfaro Altamirano presses us to rethink some basic assumptions of liberal democracy...The book’s insistent attention to the inner experience of freedom foregrounds terrain liberalism has assiduously eschewed..As much as democracy today needs to understand the depths of freedom that Alfaro Altamirano so powerfully depicts, then, perhaps there is also something to be said for what the shallowness of liberalism might supply in support."—History of European Ideas

The Belief in Intuition

Individuality and Authority in Henri Bergson and Max Scheler

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