Enigma of Kutob: An Exploration of the Guiding Voice of Filipinos

“Kutob” is a complex sensation that is rooted in Filipino culture that goes beyond the perspective of intuition. “Kutob” is essentially described as an intense feeling or awareness of one’s inner knowledge that goes beyond just a hunch and involves a person's inner self, emotions, and intuition that defies logical reasoning. This paper utilizes information from a variety of sources, primarily online articles, and studies, to describe and explore the relationship of “Kutob” in Filipino culture. This study was able to expound the four components that can help understand “Kutob”, which are psychological, biological, social or the biopsychosocial model, and cultural factors. This study also related how “Kutob” is applied in the levels of Filipino core value: Kapwa. Highlighting the influence of “Kutob” influence on Filipino decision-making and where it was rooted are some of the main ideas of the study. This research findings suggests that a person’s “Kutob” does not generally comes from nothing or tacit, but rather is rotted from our own experiences from the past, biological influences, social understanding, one’s culture, and unconscious mind that this paper also elaborated. Moreover, this paper also has possible recommendations for future researchers and to Filipinos.