Popular Culture: Common Sense is Neither Common nor Sense

Dr. Jim Taylor in his blog talks about one of my pet peeves: Common Sense. He tells us:

Common sense, defined as “sound judgment derived from experience rather than study,” is one of the most revered qualities in America. It evokes images of early and simpler times in which industrious men and women built our country into what it is today. People with common sense are seen as reasonable, down to earth, reliable, and practical.

But here’s the catch. Common sense is neither common nor sense. There’s not a whole of sound judgment going on these days (though whether it is worse than in the past, I can’t be sure), so it’s not common. If common sense was common, then most people wouldn’t make the kinds of decisions they do every day. People wouldn’t buy stuff they can’t afford. They wouldn’t smoke cigarettes or eat junk food. They wouldn’t gamble. And if you want to get really specific and timely, politicians wouldn’t be tweeting pictures of their private parts to strangers. In other words, people wouldn’t do the multitude of things that are clearly not good for them.

And common sense isn’t real sense, if we define sense as being sound judgment, because relying on experience alone doesn’t usually offer enough information to draw reliable conclusions. Heck, I think common sense is a contradiction in terms. Real sense can rarely be derived from experience alone because most people’s experiences are limited. http://drjimtaylor.com/blog/2011/07/...mon-nor-sense/

From my perspective, common sense is a fallacy if for no other reason than what might pass in some parts as common sense does not in others. More particularly, spouses often cannot agree on what sense is common.

Dr. Taylor posits, "I think we need to jettison this notion of the sanctity of common sense and instead embrace ‘reasoned sense,’ that is, sound judgment based on rigorous study of an issue (which also includes direct experience)."

Frankly, I am more tickled by being told I have a firm grasp of the obvious than I am about being told I am a person of common sense.

What say you?

I may not have common sense -- I think it's more like common notions. LOL I think like alot of others in my age group -- it may not be right, but it's common. LOL

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."~Albert Einstein

I can't stand the phrase "common sense." My mom used to always yell at me for screwing up, and then tell me that something should have simply been "common sense". Glad to see someone realizes how stupid this phrase is.

If we were using reason or reasoned sense the marriage vows would look something like this:

"I love you, and in this moment feel like I would like to love you forever and beyond death. I promise you to do my best. I agree that if there are children born from our union I will help to take care of them and raise them whether or not I continue to be with you and love you."

Reason tells me that if I love, and you maybe did once, but don't love me anymore, but love someone I would be happy for you. How wonderful to be in love! How wonderful to love! How could I not be happy that something wonderful is happening in the life of the one I love?

But common sense notion says I should feel deeply hurt by you, and I should be angry at you, and optionally hate you, divorce you, take all your stuff, make your life a living hell, and never ever forgive you. You, that's love for sure. Common sense? More like common insanity.

Wow, some depth of senses of this phrase here. I always thought that it was more basic than that. Like the laws of gravity and if you leave milk out of the fridge, it will go bad and if you don't tie your shoelaces you may likely trip on them. And, if you buy shoes that are too small for your feet and then wear them out to the shopping mall to spend the day on your feet, your feet are definitely going to hurt. All of the very common knowledge one learns very early in life. Like dunking cookies in milk, one learns very quickly that if you dunk too long you will lose that part of the cookie as it will get too moist and fall to the bottom of the glass. Common every day things that become obvious.

But that being said, not everyone is going to remember to put the milk back in the fridge their whole lives and people can be CARE-LESS about the common things that will happen as a result of CARE-LESSNESS.

Commitment is something different. Breaking commitments is also something different. And each person has their own individual sense about commitment and life as well. And perhaps the sense of female verses that of a male may be very different. That is often overlooked when making a commitment between man and woman. And unfortunately hormones are a strong contributing factor in clouding that decision of commitment. Oh yes those wonderful hormones that lighten up as we age and then one day we look around and wonder "WHERE ON EARTH WAS MY COMMON SENSE?".

And we all know that when a woman feels an issue makes complete sense, the man usually feels she has no common sense at all and visa versa. And that is when we at least have to have some Sense of HUMOR.

And I have a disclaimer on this, lately my senses have been off as I have not feeling well. But I gave it a shot anyway.

Open Eyes