common sense
American Heritage Dictionary:
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common sense
n.
Sound judgment not based on specialized knowledge; native good judgment.
[Translation of Latin sēnsus commūnis, common feelings of humanity.]
Gale Notable Literature & Its History:
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Common Sense
A pamphlet written in colonial America in the 1770s; published in January 1776.
by Thomas Paine
Synopsis
Paine explains in plain but forceful language why the American colonies should separate from Great Britain and form an independent nation.
The Pamphlet in Focus
Events in History at the Time of the Pamphlet
When Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, he had been in America only slightly longer than a year. He arrived in Philadelphia in October 1774, a thirty-seven-year-old tax collector and corset-maker from England who had just started to cultivate an interest in political writing a few years earlier. By the summer of 1776, Paine's Common Sense had sold a remarkable 150,000 copies throughout the colonies and had persuaded probably an even greater number of colonists that they must sever their political ties to Britain. The document that Thomas Jefferson and his fellow delegates signed on July 4, 1776, may have been the colonies' official declaration of independence, but Common Sense was the work that convinced America's "common" people that independence was their best-or, more exactly, their only-course of action.
For More Information
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press, 1967.
Conway, Moncure Daniel, ed. The Writings of Thomas Paine. Vol. 1. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967.
Foner, Eric. Tom Paine and Revolutionary America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
Fruchtman, Jack, Jr. Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994.
Koch, Adrienne, and William Peden, eds. The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Random House, 1944.
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. In The Writings of Thomas Paine. Vol. 1. Edited by Moncure Daniel Conway. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1894.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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common sense
noun
- The ability to make sensible decisions: judgment, sense, wisdom. Informal gumption, horse sense. See ability/inability.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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common sense
n
Definition: good reasoning
Antonyms: foolishness, impracticality, insanity, unreasonableness
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy:
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common sense
In early modern writing (e.g. Descartes) the faculty responsible for coordinating the deliveries of the different senses. In this meaning the objects of common sense are the ‘common sensibles’, i.e. qualities such as extension and motion that can be detected by more than one sense. Later the term loses any special meaning, coming to refer just to the sturdy good judgement, uncontaminated by too much theory and unmoved by scepticism, that is supposed to belong to persons before they become too philosophical. Ryle once suggested that Locke invented common sense, and Russell added that none but Englishmen have had it ever since. The term became prominent in philosophy after Moore argued in ‘A Defence of Common Sense’ that no philosophical argument purporting to establish scepticism could be more certain than his common-sense convictions. Moore's knowledge that he had a hand was more certain than any philosophical premises or trains of argument purporting to show that he did not know this. See also common sense school.
Gale Encyclopedia of US History:
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"Common Sense"
"Common Sense," influential revolutionary pamphlet by Thomas Paine, published in Philadelphia, January 1776. Paine stressed the logic of America's independence, emphasizing the defects of Britain's monarchy and the economic costs of participating in Britain's repeated European wars. Reconciliation with Britain, Paine wrote, would constitute "madness and folly." "Common Sense" avoided abstract philosophy, favoring instead the ordinary language of artisans and biblical examples to support Paine's arguments. The "plain truth" (Paine's original title for the tract) he espoused found a broad readership; around 100,000 copies circulated in 1776 alone, and the pamphlet stirred politicians and ordinary citizens to embrace American independence.
Bibliography
Conway, Moncure Daniel. The Writings of Thomas Paine. 4 vols. New York: B. Franklin, 1969.
Foner, Eric. Tom Paine and Revolutionary America. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
—Sally E. Hadden
Oxford Companion to the Mind:
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common sense
The original meaning is a 'common centre', or neural pool, into which all the five senses were supposed to contribute to give coherent perceptions, though the various senses are so very different. René Descartes (1596–1650) used the term le siège du sens commun in this way. There is indeed still a problem over the coordination of the senses and just how the different sources of information are pooled (see, for example, spatial coordination and channels, neural).
Nowadays 'common sense' generally refers to practical attitudes and widely accepted beliefs which may be hard to justify but which are generally assumed to be reliable. Extreme deviations from common-sense beliefs may be evidence of psychological disturbance, but may, on the other hand, be the products of genius, sometimes becoming accepted later as common sense. Thus, although it is now common sense that the earth is round, only a few centuries ago a man believing this might have been regarded as mad.
There is indeed a vast body of unquestioned assumptions which is seldom questioned. Common sense is, however, frequently questioned by philosophers — with a curious ambiguity, for at least linguistic philosophy tends to assume that the 'common sense' of normal language is philosophically significant. This is discussed critically by Ernest Gellner (1979).
(Published 1987)
Nowadays 'common sense' generally refers to practical attitudes and widely accepted beliefs which may be hard to justify but which are generally assumed to be reliable. Extreme deviations from common-sense beliefs may be evidence of psychological disturbance, but may, on the other hand, be the products of genius, sometimes becoming accepted later as common sense. Thus, although it is now common sense that the earth is round, only a few centuries ago a man believing this might have been regarded as mad.
There is indeed a vast body of unquestioned assumptions which is seldom questioned. Common sense is, however, frequently questioned by philosophers — with a curious ambiguity, for at least linguistic philosophy tends to assume that the 'common sense' of normal language is philosophically significant. This is discussed critically by Ernest Gellner (1979).
(Published 1987)
— Richard L. Gregory
- Bibliography
- Gellner, E. (1979). Words and Things.
Sign Language Videos:
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common sense
sign description: The C handshape touches the forehead and then moves away from the head forming a S handshape.
Quotes About:
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Common Sense
Quotes:
"Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"Common sense is calculation applied to life."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next."
- Henry Ward Beecher
"Common-sense is part of the home-made ideology of those who have been deprived of fundamental learning, of those who have been kept ignorant. This ideology is compounded from different sources: items that have survived from religion, items of empirical knowledge, items of protective skepticism, items culled for comfort from the superficial learning that is supplied. But the point is that common-sense can never teach itself, can never advance beyond its own limits, for as soon as the lack of fundamental learning has been made good, all items become questionable and the whole function of common-sense is destroyed. Common-sense can only exist as a category insofar as it can be distinguished from the spirit of inquiry, from philosophy."
- John Berger
"Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done."
- Josh Billings
"Common sense is only a modification of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it. The difference is, therefore, in degree, not nature."
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
See more famous quotes about Common Sense
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categories related to 'common sense'
- Intuition and Imagination - common sense: sound practical judgment not based on reasoning or special knowledge
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Common sense
This article is about the concept of the phrase. For the American revolutionary war pamphlet by Thomas Paine, see Common Sense (pamphlet). For other uses, see Common sense (disambiguation).
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This article is written like a personal reflection or essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (March 2011) |
Common sense is defined by Merriam-Webster as, "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts."[1] Thus, "common sense" (in this view) equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as, "the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way".[2]
Whichever definition is used, identifying particular items of knowledge as "common sense" is difficult. Philosophers may choose to avoid using the phrase when using precise language. But common sense remains a perennial topic in epistemology and many philosophers make wide use of the concept or at least refer to it. Some related concepts include intuitions, pre-theoretic belief, ordinary language, the frame problem, foundational beliefs, good sense, endoxa, axioms, wisdom, folk wisdom, folklore and public opinion.
Common-sense ideas tend to relate to events within human experience (such as good will), and thus appear commensurate with human scale. Humans lack any common-sense intuition of, for example, the behavior of the universe at subatomic distances [see Quantum mechanics], or of speeds approaching that of light [see Special relativity]. Often ideas that may be considered to be true by common sense are in fact false. Conversely, certain ideas that are subject to elaborate academic analysis oftentimes yield superior outcomes via the application of common sense.
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Contents
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Aristotle
According to Aristotle, the common sense is an actual power of inner sensation (as opposed to the external five senses) whereby the various objects of the external senses (color for sight, sound for hearing, etc.) are united and judged,[3] such that what one senses by "common sense" is the substance (or existing thing) in which the various attributes inhere (so, for example, a sheep is able to sense a wolf, not just the color of its fur, the sound of its howl, its odor, and other sensible attributes.) It was not, unlike later developments, considered to be on the level of rationality, which properly did not exist in the lower animals, but only in man; this irrational character was because animals not possessing rationality nevertheless required the use of the common sense in order to sense, for example, the difference between this or that thing, and not merely the pleasure and pain of various disparate sensations.[4] This also contributes to the understanding held by the Scholastics that when one senses, one senses something, and not just a diversity of sensible phenomena.
Common sense, in this view, differs from later views in that it is concerned with the way one receives sensation, and not with belief, or wisdom held by many; accordingly, it is "common", not in the sense of being shared among individuals, or being a genus of the different external senses, but inasmuch as it is a principle which governs the activity of the external senses.[5]
Locke and the empiricists
John Locke proposed one meaning of "common sense" in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. This interpretation builds on phenomenological experience. Each of the senses gives input, and then something integrates the sense-data into a single impression. This something Locke sees as the common sense — the sense of things in common between disparate impressions. It therefore allies with "fancy", and opposes "judgement", or the capacity to divide like things into separates. The French theologian Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet arguably developed this theory a decade before Locke.[6] Each of the empiricist philosophers approaches the problem of the unification of sense-data in their own way, giving various names to the operation. However, the approaches agree that a sense in the human understanding exists that sees commonality and does the combining: "common sense" has the same meaning.
Epistemology
Appeal to common sense characterises a general epistemological orientation called epistemological particularism (the appellation derives from Roderick Chisholm (1916–1999)). This orientation contrasts with epistemological Methodism. The particularist gathers a list of propositions that seem obvious and unassailable and then requires consistency with this set of propositions as a condition of adequacy for any abstract philosophical theory. (Particularism allows, however, rejection of an entry on the list for inconsistency with other, seemingly more secure, entries.) Epistemological Methodists[citation needed], on the other hand, begin with a theory of cognition or justification and then apply it to see which of our pre-theoretical beliefs survive. Reid and Moore represent paradigmatic particularists, while Descartes and Hume stand as paradigmatic Methodists. Methodist methodology tends toward skepticism, as the rules for acceptable or rational belief tend to be very restrictive (for instance, Descartes demanded the elimination of doubt; and Hume required the construction of acceptable belief entirely from impressions and ideas).
Particularist methodology, on the other hand, tends toward a kind of conservatism, granting perhaps an undue privilege to beliefs in which we happen to have confidence. One interesting question asks whether epistemological thought can mix the methodologies. In such a case, does it not become problematical to attempt logic, metaphysics and epistemology with the absence of original assumptions stemming from common sense? Particularism, applied to ethics and politics, may seem to simply entrench prejudice and other contingent products of social inculcation (compare cultural determinism). Can one provide a principled distinction between areas of inquiry where reliance on the dictates of common sense seems legitimate (because necessary) and areas where it seems illegitimate (as for example an obstruction to intellectual and practical progress)? A meta-philosophical discussion of common sense may then, indeed, proceed: What is common sense? Supposing that one cannot give a precise characterization of it: does that mean that appeal to common sense remains off-limits in philosophy? What utility does it have to discern whether a belief is a matter of common sense or not? And under what circumstances, if any, might one advocate a view that seems to run contrary to common sense? Should considerations of common sense play any decisive role in philosophy? Common sense in politics is the same as: ordinary, status quo, non-innovative, safe (popular) ideas. If not common sense, then could another similar concept (perhaps "intuition") play such a role? In general, does epistemology have "philosophical starting points", and if so, how can one characterize them? Supposing that no beliefs exist which we will willingly hold come what may, do there though exist some we ought to hold more stubbornly at least?
Projects
- McCarthy's advice-taker proposal of 1958 arguably represents the first scheme to use logic for representing common-sense knowledge in mathematical logic and using an automated theorem prover to derive answers to questions expressed in logical form. Compare Leibniz's calculus ratiocinator and characteristica universalis.
- The Cyc project attempts to provide a basis of common-sense knowledge for artificial-intelligence systems.
- The Open Mind Common Sense project resembles the Cyc project, except that it, like other on-line collaborative projects such as Wikipedia, depends on the contributions of thousands of individuals across the World Wide Web .
See also
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References
- ^ common sense, Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary.
- ^ common sense, Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
- ^ Aristotle: De Anima, Book III, Part 2
- ^ Thomas Aquinas: Commentary on De Anima, Book II, Chapter 2, Lectio Three
- ^ Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, Pars I, Q. 78 A. 4 Ad 1
- ^ http://www.rosmini-in-english.org/NewEssay_01/NE1_Sect3/NE1_S03C05.htm Antonio Rosmini, New Essay concerning The Origin of Ideas
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Literature and Its Times © 1997 Joyce Moss and George Wilson © 2007 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
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Encyclopedia of American History Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Second Edition. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 2004. All rights reserved.
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