Common sense: Difference between revisions

{{Distinguish|Common knowledge}}

{{About||the American Revolutionary War pamphlet by Thomas Paine|Common Sense|other uses}}{{pp-move}}

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"Common sense" has at least two older and more specialized meanings which have influenced the modern meanings, and are still important in [[philosophy]]. The original historical meaning is the capability of the animal soul ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:ψυχή#Ancient Greek|ψῡχή]]}}, {{transliteration|grc|psūkhḗ}}), proposed by [[Aristotle]] to explain how the different senses join and enable discrimination of particular objects by people and other animals. This common sense is distinct from the several [[Perception|sensory perception]]s and from human [[Rationality|rational thought]], but it cooperates with both. The second philosophical use of the term is Roman-influenced, and is used for the natural human sensitivity for other humans and the community.<ref>The ''[[Shorter Oxford English Dictionary]]'' of 1973 gives four meanings of "common sense": An archaic meaning is "An internal sense which was regarded as the common bond or centre of the five senses"; "Ordinary, normal, or average understanding" without which a man would be "foolish or insane", "the general sense of mankind, or of a community" (two sub-meanings of this are good sound practical sense and general sagacity); A philosophical meaning, the "faculty of primary truths."</ref> Just like the everyday meaning, both of the philosophical meanings refer to a type of basic awareness and ability to judge that most people are expected to share naturally, even if they cannot explain why. All these meanings of "common sense", including the everyday ones, are interconnected in a complex history and have evolved during important political and philosophical debates in modern [[Western civilisation]], notably concerning science, politics and economics.<ref>See the body of this article concerning (for example) Descartes, Hobbes, Adam Smith, and so on. [[Thomas Paine]]'s pamphlet named ''"[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]"'' was an influential publishing success during the period leading up to the [[American Revolution]].</ref> The interplay between the meanings has come to be particularly notable in English, as opposed to other western European languages, and the English term has in turn become international.<ref>See for example {{Harvtxt|Rosenfeld|2011|page=282}}; {{harvtxt|Wierzbicka|2010}}; and {{harvtxt|van Kessel|1987|page=117}}: "today the Anglo-Saxon concept prevails almost everywhere".</ref>