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Common Sense: Only An Urban Legend?

MrRING

MrRING

Android Futureman
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Aug 7, 2002
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I hear many people refer to the idea that there is such a thing as "common sense", but does an animal that relies so much on learning rather than instinct for survival (the human animal) have a capacity for a basic "common sense" indiginous to all humanity?

Most often when I hear "common sense" being refered to, it's not an intellectual expectation but a social one, like "That kid isn't minding their parents - if they had common sense they could handle the situation and get him to behave" or "If Bob had any common sense he wouldn't spend his whole check without investing a little first" and so on. TV psyciatrist Dr. Phil has made a living out of dispencing "common sense" solutions to people with problems, but isn't what he does based in years of experience rather than an inate knowledge he has?

Is comon sense a real thing that everybody here believes in? or is it a folk belief used to marginilize strange, odd, and very human choices of behavior that are outside the norm, socially stigmitizing any action good or bad that doesn't "make sense"?
 
Common sense was always something gained through living and was usually considered to be lacking in the upper classes, especially the peerage and royalty, mainly because they could always pay for their problems to go away.
It was making sure you had enough to live on and didn't make yourself ill or endanger yourself or your family un-necessarily. I suppose it derives from the times when the working class were nothing more than miners or farmworkers.
The Common Sense could have earned it's name from the common, the peasants and workers of centuries ago who had to rely on that because they were considered less intelligent than the rich.
 
I've never understood the concept of "common sense" I remember adults suggesting I use my common sense, when I was younger - when what they really meant was "I have enough life experience to know how to do that, are you thick or wot?" :hmph:
I remember someone telling me that learning to drive was using your common sense :confused:
 
Reminds me of the kind of thing some contempory logicians having being saying about how logical relationships cannot really be explained - they can be shown, and then you either see them or you don't.

This has led some to argue for a logical faculty 'hard-wired' into the psyche, akin to Chomsky's recursive language mechanism. If you buy into that, then common sense may not be a myth afterall, and may be present in some people more than others.

I, for example, have no common sense whatsoever - I can see pretty patterns, though :)
 
i think the "common sense" had a concrete legel meaning up to the 18th century.. meaning things that all people would agree is/are illegel/unlawful... so that law need not be specific but built up from case law as it is now.
 
Common sense - having sufficient imagination to 'see' the result of your actions and planning acordingly (like embarking on a week long crossing of a desert and drinking all your water on the first day would be stupid and quite possibly fatal, so just dont!)
The alternative for those with no ability to plan is experience, providing the 'learning by mistakes' don't kill you first.
 
It should be renamed 'uncommon sense', as there seem to be very few examples of it in the public domain.

However, I did hear on the radio the other day, that Thames Water are going to hire the use of their sewers to Cable companies. They make money, and the Cable people don't have to dig any holes.
Now that's Uncommon Sense !

Wouldn't like the job of routing the cables though, I suppose they will just go through the motions.
 
One of those idioms which is so common as to be missed by the
Dictionary of Idioms, under both Common and Sense!

Brewer comes to the rescue with this:

"CS does not mean that good sense which is common or commonly
needed in the ordinary affairs of life, but the sense which is common
to all the five, or the point where the five senses meet, supposed to
be the seat of the soul, where it judges what is presented by the
senses and decides the mode of action."

So pointing out that it isn't very common among the populace is
a common error but not Common Sense! :cool:
 
So, I guess the consensus here is that common sense is a UL?
 
Common sense....hmmm...

Let me ask a first year psych question (note, I have given a 'psych' scenario)...Can a one eyed man land a plane?
 
Ah..grey; the answer please......justify your answer post hoc, if necessary.
 
It should be renamed 'uncommon sense', as there seem to be very few examples of it in the public domain.
Click to expand...

I guess so but it could be deameaning to people assuming that theirs not many smart people who'd use this sense.
 
Well then, I'd say that anyone can land a plane. Even I could land a plane - blindfolded. Technically speaking, you might term it crashing. But the plane would be on the ground, which is presumably what counts.
 
Yes he could (with training/talking down etc). However, can a one eyed man land a plane legally? I believe that if one loses an eye, one cannot hold a flying license. For ref: even with only one eye, a person normally retains a smidgeon of depth perception.

The above question is more a 'genteel' breaking in exercise for trying to get kids to think a long a number of different lines: most importantly, why common sense may not be 'common' :D

Stu & Grey - top of the class
 
Here's a more tricky one...

A woman (or man) claims that the voices from her/his tv set are talking to her/him. What does the above statement tell you about the person's state of mental health? Indeed, what does your common sense tell you?
 
Well, the statement is literally true. Voices from TV sets do talk to viewers.
 
graylien said:
Well then, I'd say that anyone can land a plane. Even I could land a plane - blindfolded. Technically speaking, you might term it crashing. But the plane would be on the ground, which is presumably what counts.
Click to expand...

:lol:
 
i concur with graylien, if someone told me voices were coming from their telly, i would say 'it's supposed to happen silly!' then point and laugh.

if they then said 'but it's not switched on!' i would begin to ponder. maybe they have a deaf neighbour with the volume turned up to blimey loud. (this experience i have from a house i used to live in, nightmare)

so there
:D

~*minky*~
edited coz i can't spell today.
 
Yep, agree with all the above. It demonstrates that the volume on their TV is at an audible level. With the power off, however, I'd want to see for myself.

If they claim that their TV walks about and sounds like Kenneth Williams doing an impression of Margaret Thatcher, I'd ask if their name was Mavis Cruett ;).
 
Interesting. Okay, the TV is on. The person claims the tv is talking to him/her.
 
GadaffiDuck said:
Here's a more tricky one...

A woman (or man) claims that the voices from her/his tv set are talking to her/him. What does the above statement tell you about the person's state of mental health? Indeed, what does your common sense tell you?
Click to expand...

S/He is bonkers. Stark, raving. The white coats, blue pills (maybe even some pink ones...), sectionable, detainable, kind of madness.
 
Some people don't have enough common sense to realise that this thread is a complete waste of time.

;)
 
rynner said:
Some people don't have enough common sense to realise that this thread is a complete waste of time.

;)
Click to expand...

Why?

It's a fun thread to post in. :p
 
As Terry Pratchett wrote, Common Sense is what tells you the world is flat.
 
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