Topics Mind

Question Hi, I'll just share my experiences as below and would just like to ask what principle or theory that could possibly explain the phenomenon? And what term you call it? I'm a computer programmer. Sometimes there are program logic related problems that I was trying to solve for hours, and yet cannot figure out the answers. But when I ask a colleague regarding the problem, in an instant, even before my colleague answers my question, I was able to draw the answer from my mind. Then, I'm going to tell my colleague, "uhm, ok, I know already! Thanks". It always happen. Sometimes, just the presence of another person would help you to resolve your problem.

Accepted:
July 31, 2014

Comments

Interesting, but it's an empirical, psychological question rather than a philosophical question properly so-called. I therefore recommend asking a psychologist or looking into the psychology literature. Any philosopher who tries to answer it is doing psychology, and probably from his/her armchair.

You have described a fascinating phenomenon that I think is remarkably common, though I don't agree that it always happens It certainly happens frequently in my experience. Perhaps we both have very bright colleagues whom we happen to know very well, and can anticipate what they will say! I am delighted to see "the phenomenon" so well described. However, in the form you present it, I think most philosophers and psychologists would say that the question you ask is a psychological one, not a philosophical one, and that no doubt it is amenable to empirical research. Still, it does prompt a philosophical thought or two. I am put in mind of Wittgenstein's observation that 'In philosophy it is not enough to learn in every case what is to be said about a subject, but also how one must speak about it. We are always having to begin by learning the method of tackling it.' Perhaps when you ask a colleague about your problem, you have to decide not just what to say but how to say it, and that is enough for your mind to turn up the answer. This is true in philosophy, but perhaps if the problem is one whose shape is completely obscure to you, it is in effect a philosophical problem for you, at least temporarily. Then you see the way through the confusion to what is actually going on. I wonder what sort of experiments a psychologist might suggest to answer your question, 'What principle could explain the phenomenon?' I am sure there are bad philosophical principles that some people would drag in, such as this: you already knew the answer in a previous life (Plato). I would go very gingerly with answers like that.