Intuition may be a form of leap-frog, where, like in chess or in soccer, we have played the game so often that we no longer need to calculate every little step.

Another aspect of intuition may be the logical processing of data of which we are unaware. For example, our noses pick up familiar scents while we’re chatting with a friend. The subtle smells, and small visual and auditory cues, are below our conscious radar. Our brains, though, receive the information and fuse that data with memory and with the data we are paying attention to—such as the content of the conversation. The brain formulates strong intuitive hunches that are merely logical theories patched together with less than visible puzzle pieces. Like with magic tricks, there’s a logical explanation.

So, intuition (perhaps a subset of logical thought) is worthy of the respect of logicians. The process steps and data, and thus the logic, may just not be visible.