The Problem with “Common Sense”
“That’s just common sense” is used by many to justify their perspective. However, how we “sense” or understand life varies greatly from individual to individual. Therefore, rather than needing to justify our “sense” as “common,” how about we just ensure that our perceptions are purposeful, and congruent with what we would recommend to someone we love? – Bill Crawford, PhD
Wikipedia defines “Common Sense” as “a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by (“common to”) nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.” And, while I believe that this is the way most people think about the term, I suggest that there may be a flaw in this logic.
For example, as mentioned in this week’s quote, “how we “sense” or understand life varies greatly from individual to individual,” and therefore cannot accurately be described as “common.” Plus, as mentioned, many people tend to use the phrase to describe/justify how they think and how others should think as well, and this can lead to people defending their individual perspectives versus being open to learning from others, and arguments about what is common sense and what isn’t.
Therefore I suggest we drop the phrase “common sense” from our vocabulary, and instead become more purposeful in how we “sense” and/or understand ourselves, and the world around us. For example, rather than thinking that our political perspective is “the only common sense way to look at things,” maybe we could be curious about what sort of good ideas lie on the other side of the aisle, and how we might combine these two perspectives in a way that create a third (more comprehensive) alternative. We might want to be a little less sure of how we think people should behave in general (because it’s just common sense), and instead recognize that often there are facts and circumstances that we can’t know that influence the choices people make in life.
Bottom line, given that how we sense, or understand the world around us is unique to each of us, let’s recognize that the phrase “common sense” is more of an oxymoron, and again, strive to ensure that our sense is as purposeful as possible and is congruent with what we would recommend to someone we love.
~ All the best, Dr. Bill