I have wanted to write a column on ‘common sense’ for a long time—but it is a surprisingly difficult topic to write about.
That’s because we instinctively, or intuitively, know what ‘common sense’ is, but it’s very hard to put into words.
Particularly into words that are simple and straight forward—as simple straight forward as ‘common sense’ itself.
You can see this struggle in the definition offered by the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, which says that ‘common sense’ means: ‘the ability to behave in a sensible way and make practical decisions.’
Which (when you look carefully at it) basically says that ‘common sense’ is, well, just common sense!
You can see this when the definition uses words such as ‘sensible’ and ‘practical.’
Yes, I agree that both ‘sensible’ and ‘practical’ are synonyms for ‘common sense’—but they don’t actually unpack what is meant by this notion of ‘common sense.’
So, I tried, instead to check The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.
This weighty book has an entry on ‘common sense’ written (as it happens) by an Australian philosopher, Tony Coady.
It runs for the better part of two columns (one page) so I won’t try to summarise the whole thing.
Instead, I’ll give you my response to what he has written.
It seems to me that common sense consists of the combination of three things: ‘looking / thinking / sharing.’
By ‘looking’ I mean paying attention to the world around us.
By ‘thinking’ I mean doing a bit of reasoning in your brain about the stuff you observe about the world around us.
By ‘sharing’ I mean that this gives us stuff that we hold in common (hence, the ’common’ in ‘common sense’).
We may not share this out loud.
Sometimes our utterances will be little more than a nod of agreement (‘Spot on mate’, ‘Too right!’)
But when we apply our common sense to a particular topic, how this works becomes clear.
So—as an example—should biological males compete in women’s sport?
Common sense gives the answer: ‘Of course not!’
To our ‘looking / thinking / sharing’ it is just obvious.
On average blokes are bigger, stronger and faster than women, so men competing in women’s sports is just plain cheating.
The problem with our society is just how uncommon ‘common sense’ is.
Why do many sporting bodies allow men to compete against women?
Because they have stopped ‘looking / thinking / sharing’ and feel committed (perhaps for reasons of social pressure) to a type of pretending.
('Pretending' is the opposite of 'common sense'.)
They have deliberately turned off from paying close attention to the world around them, or reasoning logically step-by-step, or pooling such observations and reasoning with the community.
They have turned off their ‘common sense.’
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin for 'Words Matter' on Sky News.
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BY THE WAY...
The May-June issue of Australian Geographic is out now (with the tree frog on the cover) -- inside are my two small columns on 'Placenames' and 'Ozwords'.
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
I have just taken part in Jenny Wheeler's podcast "The Joys of Binge Reading." You can listen to the conversation here:
https://thejoysofbingereading.com/kel-richards-country-house-mysteries/
I have signed the anti-Semitism pledge, and I encourage you to do the same. You can sign the letter here: www.saynotoantisemitism.org
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
BOOKS:
* My latest book is -- "Defending the Gospel" (second, fully revised, edition). You can find it here: Defending the Gospel – matthiasmedia.com.au
* If you're looking for my recent book "Flash Jim" you'll find it here -- Flash Jim, The astonis
hing story of the convict fraudster who wrote Australia's first dictionary by Kel Richards | 9781460759769 | Booktopia
* You can find all Kel's books currently in print here -- Booktopia Search Results for 'kel richards'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.
* And also here -- Amazon.com.au : Kel Richards
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* Many of Kel's out of print books can be found at ABE Books -- Kel Richards - AbeBooks explaining words explain the term
