Common sense
From RationalWiki
| “ | The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. | ” |
Common sense is something which you think you know to be true but that may not actually be true. For all practical purposes, "common sense" is a body of commonly-accepted[1] "rules-of-thumb" for how the world operates. For the most part, this works fine; it is common sense not to walk in front of a speeding car, rationalising the effects of the car's momentum suddenly being transferred on to your own body is unnecessary - indeed, doing this would take up precious time that could be used to get out of the damn way! For something that is supposed to be common, however, it is often rare to find.
Often, many physical laws that are true (such as quantum mechanics) defy common sense ("how does an electron need to turn through 720 degrees to come back to where it started?!?!?"). The lesson: if something doesn't seem right even if "common sense" says it should be, it's time to bust out a can of whoopass.
[edit] Confusion
Common sense is often confused with rational thought, being that people often believe common sense must be true and act incredulously to rational or scientific ideals that contradict common sense. This is due to the fact that the human brain can easily work with ideas like "common sense" and "rules of thumb" but can't quite cope with physics and statistics. For instance, it is statistically more probable to die from an asteroid impact (a rare and implausible event to many people) than a lightning strike (a common and very plausible event, particularly to golfers).[2] Common sense is often made up of much prejudice and snap judgement, and therefore is not always useful and can certainly be irrational even when it is useful.
A similar train of thought is used by religious fundamentalists who insist that while other religious groups may have their own, incorrect, "interpretation" of holy scripture, the fundamentalists' group does not have an "interpretation" at all. They, you see, simply read the plain and direct words of scripture, whose meaning is clear to anybody with common sense.
Under no circumstance is "common sense" ever to be confused with common law. You'd be surprised how many people get those two mixed up, and how many of them wind up going to jail.
Common Sense was also the name of a pamphlet by Thomas Paine that was highly influential during the time of the American Revolution.[3]
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Subject to scope. For example, people raised in ancient Aztec society may "think" some ritual is required to make sure the sun comes out the next day, while other cultures don't.
- ↑ http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ears5/handouts/Prob_dying6_25_99.html Probabilities of dying
- ↑ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3755
