Common sense

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense his article is a!out the concept of the phrase. For the "merican revolutionary war pamphlet !y homas #aine, see Common $ense %pamphlet&. For other uses, see Common sense %disam!iguation&. Common sense is defined !y Merriam-Webster as, 'sound and prudent (udgment !ased on a simple perception of the situation or facts.')*+ hus, 'common sense' %in this view& e,uates to the knowledge and e-perience which most people already have, or which the person using the term !elieves that they do or should have. he Cam!ridge .ictionary defines it as, 'the !asic level of practical knowledge and (udgment that we all need to help us live in a reasona!le and safe way'.)/+ Whichever definition is used, identifying particular items of knowledge as 'common sense' is difficult. #hilosophers may choose to avoid using the phrase when using precise language. 0ut common sense remains a perennial topic in epistemology and many philosophers make wide use of the concept or at least refer to it. $ome related concepts include intuitions, pre1theoretic !elief, ordinary language, the frame pro!lem, foundational !eliefs, good sense, endoxa, a-ioms, wisdom, folk wisdom, folklore, and pu!lic opinion. Common1sense ideas tend to relate to events within human e-perience %such as good will&, and thus appear commensurate with human scale. 2umans lack any common1sense intuition of, for e-ample, the !ehavior of the universe at su!atomic distances )see 3uantum mechanics+, or of speeds approaching that of light )see $pecial relativity+. 4ften ideas that may !e considered to !e true !y common sense are in fact false. Conversely, certain ideas that are su!(ect to ela!orate academic analysis oftentimes yield superior outcomes via the application of common sense)citation needed+.

Contents

* "ristotle / Cicero 5 6ocke and the empiricists 7 8pistemology 9 #ro(ects : $ee also ; <eferences

Aristotle

"ccording to "ristotle, the common sense %$ensus communis& is an actual power of inner sensation %as opposed to the e-ternal five senses %Five wits&& where!y the various o!(ects of the e-ternal senses %color for sight, sound for hearing, etc.& are united and (udged,)5+ such that what one senses !y 'common sense' is the su!stance %or e-isting thing& in which the various attri!utes inhere %so, for e-ample, a sheep is a!le to sense a wolf, not (ust the color of its fur, the sound of its howl, its odor, and other sensi!le attri!utes.& =t was not, unlike later developments, considered to !e on the level of rationality, which properly did not e-ist in the lower animals, !ut only in man> this irrational character was !ecause animals not possessing rationality nevertheless re,uired the use of the common sense in order to sense, for e-ample, the difference !etween this or that thing, and not merely the pleasure and pain of various disparate sensations.)7+ his also contri!utes to the understanding held !y the $cholastics that when one senses, one senses something, and not (ust a diversity of sensi!le phenomena. Common sense, in this view, differs from later views in that it is concerned with the way one receives sensation, and not with !elief, or wisdom held !y many> accordingly, it is 'common', not in the sense of !eing shared among individuals, or !eing a genus of the different e-ternal senses, !ut inasmuch as it is a principle which governs the activity of the e-ternal senses.)9+

Cicero
=n Cicero, common sense was the common practice, custom, speech, views, and mentality of the crowd whose tastes the orator had to take into account if he were to influence them %De Oratore, =, 5, */&. "t the same time it was the tacit sense and collection of spontaneous (udgments which all men possess !y nature and which permits them to discern good from evil %De Oratore, ===, 9?, *@9&.

Locke and the empiricists

John 6ocke proposed one meaning of 'common sense' in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. his interpretation !uilds on phenomenological e-perience. 8ach of the senses gives input, and then something integrates the sense1data into a single impression. his something 6ocke sees as the common sense A the sense of things in common !etween disparate impressions. =t therefore allies with 'fancy', and opposes '(udgement', or the capacity to divide like things into separates. he French theologian Jac,ues10Bnigne 0ossuet argua!ly developed this theory a decade !efore 6ocke.):+ 8ach of the empiricist philosophers approaches the pro!lem of the unification of sense1data in their own way, giving various names to the operation. 2owever, the approaches agree that a sense in the human understanding e-ists that sees commonality and does the com!ining: 'common sense' has the same meaning.

Epistemology

"ppeal to common sense characterises a general epistemological orientation called epistemological particularism %the appellation derives from <oderick Chisholm %*@*:C *@@@&&. his orientation contrasts with epistemological Dethodism. he particularist gathers a list of propositions that seem o!vious and unassaila!le and then re,uires consistency with this set of propositions as a condition of ade,uacy for any a!stract philosophical theory. %#articularism allows, however, re(ection of an entry on the list for inconsistency with other, seemingly more secure, entries.& 8pistemological Dethodists)citation needed+, on the other hand, !egin with a theory of cognition or (ustification and then apply it to see which of our pre1theoretical !eliefs survive. <eid and Doore represent paradigmatic particularists, while .escartes and 2ume stand as paradigmatic Dethodists. Dethodist methodology tends toward skepticism, as the rules for accepta!le or rational !elief tend to !e very restrictive %for instance, .escartes demanded the elimination of dou!t> and 2ume re,uired the construction of accepta!le !elief entirely from impressions and ideas&. #articularist methodology, on the other hand, tends toward a kind of conservatism, granting perhaps an undue privilege to !eliefs in which we happen to have confidence. 4ne interesting ,uestion asks whether epistemological thought can mi- the methodologies. =n such a case, does it not !ecome pro!lematical to attempt logic, metaphysics and epistemology with the a!sence of original assumptions stemming from common senseE #articularism, applied to ethics and politics, may seem to simply entrench pre(udice and other contingent products of social inculcation %compare cultural determinism&. Can one provide a principled distinction !etween areas of in,uiry where reliance on the dictates of common sense seems legitimate %!ecause necessary& and areas where it seems illegitimate %as for e-ample an o!struction to intellectual and practical progress&E " meta1philosophical discussion of common sense may then, indeed, proceed: What is common senseE $upposing that one cannot give a precise characteriFation of it: does that mean that appeal to common sense remains off1limits in philosophyE What utility does it have to discern whether a !elief is a matter of common sense or notE "nd under what circumstances, if any, might one advocate a view that seems to run contrary to common senseE $hould considerations of common sense play any decisive role in philosophyE Common sense in politics is the same as: ordinary, status ,uo, non1 innovative, safe %popular& ideas. =f not common sense, then could another similar concept %perhaps 'intuition'& play such a roleE =n general, does epistemology have 'philosophical starting points', and if so, how can one characteriFe themE $upposing that no !eliefs e-ist which we will willingly hold come what may, do there though e-ist some we ought to hold more stu!!ornly at leastE

Projects

DcCarthyGs advice1taker proposal of *@9H argua!ly represents the first scheme to use logic for representing common1sense knowledge in mathematical logic and using an automated theorem prover to derive answers to ,uestions e-pressed in logical form. Compare 6ei!niFGs calculus ratiocinator and characteristica universalis.

he Cyc pro(ect attempts to provide a !asis of common1sense knowledge for artificial1intelligence systems. he 4pen Dind Common $ense pro(ect resem!les the Cyc pro(ect, e-cept that it, like other on1line colla!orative pro(ects such as Wikipedia, depends on the contri!utions of thousands of individuals across the World Wide We! .

See also
Wiki,uote has a collection of ,uotations related to: Common sense 6ook up common sense in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

"ppeal to tradition Common knowledge Common sense and the .iallelus Common ense, a pamphlet !y homas #aine Commonsense reasoning %in "rtificial intelligence& Convention %norm& .arwin "wards .o-a 8-oteric Frame pro!lem "ntonio Iramsci =ntuition %knowledge&

Jatural language Jorm %sociology& #hronesis, practical wisdom <elevance John <alston $aul $apirCWhorf hypothesis $ocial cognition $ocial <epresentations ruthiness Wisdom of repugnance World view

References
Jotes *. /. 5. 7. hree 9. :. ^ homas ",uinas: $umma heologiae, #ars =, 3. ;H ". 7 "d * ^ http://www.rosmini1in1 english.org/Jew8ssay_?*/J8*_$ect5/J8*_$?5C?9.htm "ntonio <osmini, !e" Essay concerning #he Origin o$ %deas ^ common sense, Derriam1We!sterGs 4nline .ictionary. ^ common sense, Cam!ridge .ictionaries 4nline. ^ "ristotle: .e "nima, 0ook ===, #art / ^ homas ",uinas: Commentary on De Anima, 0ook ==, Chapter /, 6ectio