What is common sense?

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What is common sense?

Why does the US Supreme Court have nine votes and often they do not agree?

So many decisions are split decisions like 5 vs 4 or 4 vs 5 - rarely 9 to 0 or 0 to 9?

If common sense is required to be a Supeme Court justice, why do the justices so often disagree with one another about the exact same case being looked at?

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Contrast the above with:

Words

Correct diagnosis

No diagnosis (abstain from voting)

Wrong diagnosis

Commons sense is what people refer to when they can't come up with anything even remotely like an argument or a piece of evidence to support what they're saying. It's also a great thing to refer to if you want to make someone feel bad for not understanding something.



Good question. I think the answer has something to do with the inherent invalidity of government, which I consider common sense.

I think common sense means something lot of people would know on their own without being told.

Pretty much . . . for example: It's common sense to use something, then put it back where you found it so others can use it. If you want a more personal experience answer: a long time ago, I was at the ocean and my family was doing some surfing with body boards. Well, I had one of the long plastic ones that could double for knee boarding, and it had a strap on it. Well, I had seen something that showed someone strapped into the same board and thought to do the same. Well, I got in trouble because common sense dictates that if you do that in the beach, and the waves hit you wrong, you could get stranded and drown (I was between 10-12 years old when this happened, not sure if I was older though). It's pretty much knowing the conditions of your surroundings/situation, and what to do/not to do in said surroundings/situations.

i think common sense is sense that commoners have.

Well, first off, I'm glad you're okay. So, now you know for future occasions. And, gently, if possible, I think it's okay to cut yourself some slack, because people don't anticipate things all the time. For example, look at the way supposedly 'normal' people drive.

And then, if you're trying to 'excel,' it's not common sense. Common sense is a more loosey-goosey type of thing.

WOW! I HATE the 'You don't have any common sense" line from my parents. It's what everyone else has mention I remember learning about stuff in Psychology class and the teacher said it's common knowledge everyone knows (UH I don't remember when Columbus sailed!! !!) It's not Common TO ME!

There is such a large amount of knowledge that seems to be a part of everyone's basic understanding of the world and society, and so much of that knowledge is completely lost on me. I want to ask questions, but people will wonder why I don't know what everyone else knows.

Common sense is basically things society thinks everyone should know, but which pretty much no one people does.

It's a highly abstract idea basically used to insult people.

Last edited by Asp-Z on 19 Aug 2010, 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I get this a lot from my parents.

Usually if I play it safe and not assume anything, they yell at me to have more common sense. Then when I do assume something, they give me a long lecture about why assuming is bad.

I can't ever win. xD

Common Sense is that which EVERYONE thinks they have, no matter how absurd their positions are or how fallacious their logic is.

In reality, common sense is just a placeholder for one's ignorance.

Learn and then know. Common sense is nothing more than guessing at the unlearned.

I do think there is such a thing as "common sense," but the concept can be misused and the phrase certainly is overused.

Common sense tells you to keep your fingers out of the fire. You can feel the heat as your hand gets closer, and you know that fire burns things.

The term is "common" sense, not "universal" sense, because there are very few things that don't require underlying knowledge or experience of some sort. Common sense in the situation with the fire requires that you can feel the heat and that you've observed how fire burns. "Common" sense refers to conclusions that most people will reach in a new situation, but not ALL people.

If I tell my son that some expected reaction or interpretation is common sense, I CAN also tell him WHY. And, well, he most certainly is going to ask When the term is applied appropriately, a person should be able to look backwards with 20/20 hindsight and explain why their common sense led them to an action.

The Supreme Court may value common sense, but very little of what they decide currently rests on it. If something were common sense, would it really be appealed that far? No. Issues get that far because there is a political element, and when it comes to politics, our Supreme Court justices are very polar. As much as politicians try to throw around the term common sense as support for their positions, what they are espousing is usually pretty far from common sense. Common sense and politics don't really go together; when you hear the term in a political context, it's time to question if it has been validly used.

'Common Sense' is the ability to intuit outcomes based on previous experience, thereby being able to - more often than not- determine appropriate action or behavior based on the familiarity of the variables at hand.


Its called 'common', (although in my experience it isn't nearly so common as one might expect), because an individual's ability to perform this type of function normally increases with age and maturity. Its 'common' for one to learn certain seemingly obvious-to-everyone ideas, concepts and tasks as one grows up. If, by a certain age, one has not yet acquired these skills, one is said to 'lack common sense.'


And the law does not depend on common sense. The law depends on precedent and interpretation. Since most laws are written by politicians, sense (as in logic or intelligence) of any kind doesn't even come into play.

i don't know, but Daily Mail readers seem to LOVE it.

I think that sums it up well. Common sense is what keeps us from walking into poles or driving the car into a lake. I understnd it can be used condescendingly to criticize someone for doing something wrong, but that's just a convenient misuse of the term.


Yes. I can completely relate to this. But I don't think it has to do with common sense, because that applies to simple knowledge that just about everyone has or can be expected to have, unless they just act without thinking.

I think that the feeling of having to figure out everything from scratch when other people seem to just know what is expected is an AS trait. We are both blind to some social expectations and also used to applying logic, so when other people seem to instinctively know things we don't just accept their knowledge on faith, we want to figure it out for ourselves.

Most people just do whatever is conventional, without thinking too much about it, so they seem to have some basic understanding that we lack, but our understanding, when we acquire it eventually, is more solidly grounded. At least, that's my perception.