Common Sense

[Yellow]

Okay, so first, let me tell you a story:

I worked at a medium security prison for a year an a half. For the first 9 months, I was an academic instructor for inmates who wanted (or were told they had to) earn a GED but weren't academically ready for the GED class. So I taught 6-8th grade math, reading, and language arts (ABE III).

Anyway, one thing you hear in prison a lot is "That boy ain't got no sense". Heck, I was told that I ain't got no sense more than once by my ABE III students. One day, after hearing this phrase again, I tried to explain why I thought "common sense" wasn't so "common" (using the multiple intelligences theory). They wholly rejected my hypothesis. So, I asked them (as a class) to define common sense. About half the class (that's a lot of participation in a prison classroom) formed a make-shift committee and they proceeded to explain it to me.

See, common sense is doing what you need to do to take care of yourself. Brushing your teeth everyday is an example of common sense. Cleaning your white Nikes so they look new all the time: that is common sense. But more specifically, common sense is making ends meet. I asked for an example and here is what they came up with:

Imagine that I walked into the classroom with a pizza for my lunch and set it on my desk. And let's say that it was Inmate Brown's favorite kind of pizza. It would be common sense for Brown to walk up and take a slice of my pizza when I wasn't looking.

Needless to say, I tried to clarify the point: did he mean that it was common sense for me to assume that he'd take it? No. It was common sense for him to take it.

That was the end of the class period that day because after all, I was just stalling til the bell (that's what teachers do.) But I was stunned by the relative consensus on the matter.

I have told this story to a good number of people since, and normally, when I ask the question, I get a smattering of answers:

Common sense is supporting a newborn's head.
Common sense is knowing where to place people's accents.
Common sense is not interfering when two dogs are fighting.
Common sense is greeting someone before you start talking business.
Common sense is knowing where the table is and not bumping into it.

But these things are hardly common. Some come from experience and cultural learning, but I think that some come from (multiple) intellectual strengths. I think there are just some things that we learn so well that it is difficult for us to believe that it isn't universal.

So with all this rambling, I guess I was wandering what you guys thought about the nature of common sense.

 

[Brontosaurie]

common sense to me is not getting trapped within recursive thinking, i.e. loops

having a sense of proportion to ones mental models

and, as far as possible, no bias (save for the intrinsic bias of the will to power)

by the way: that was a fascinating anecdote. i cannot help but wonder how much self-deprecating hopelessness lies in their brutish moral prescriptions...

 

[Black Rose]

What someone ought to do in a situation where they need to find a common prescribed method that anyone else would need to find in order to do what they need to effectively. So the environment must be the same and hold in common what is to be done. Individually cleverness happens in uncommon situations but anything completely new does not lend itself common. Shared experience more often than not happen to people that build common sense such as in childhood growing up in a school or city.

 

[redbaron]

Actually I think common sense would be for someone else to take a slice of Brown's favourite pizza, destroy the rest and then exchange the last slice of his favourite pizza (which he will not see again for an indeterminate period of time) for something valuable of his. Since it's his favourite pizza he'll likely allow himself to be duped into giving something of more value than what the pizza is actually worth.

After obtaining this more valuable item, one should look for futher opportunities at lopsided trades to further increase the value of one's possessions. Slowly but surely with enough trades in one's favour, one could set up a "shop" in the prison. Thereby ensuring high social status within the prison, eventually employing others to also seek out lopsided trades with others for a share in the conquests. At this point through a monopoly of resources and manpower within the prison one would even be able to work through corrupt guards to receive some form of favouritism inside the prison.

Along the way it will probably become necessary to kill off any competing inmates for the purpose of maintaining status. Of course achieved through superior manipulation of material and human capital within the prison. Indirectly influencing circumstances within the prison to lead to the inmate's death, effectively keeping one's hands clean of the whole endeavour. Alternatively if a need for swift execution is required, one could use their contacts within the corrupt guards to result in an "accident". Of course one would begin setting up this scenario from the first moment of extorting Mr Brown with a slice of his favourite pizza, so by the time this was necessary one would have many connections in place.

Of course this is the logical endpoint of the classroom's mentality. Brutality and subtlety in the name of self-preservation, exploiting the weakness of others systematically and without concern for any moral pittance.

 

[Cæilon]

Common sense is supporting a newborn's head. yes
Common sense is knowing where to place people's accents. no
Common sense is not interfering when two dogs are fighting. not always
Common sense is greeting someone before you start talking business. no, this is polite
Common sense is knowing where the table is and not bumping into it. no

Common sense relates to things that aren't blatantly stupid such as:

• Walking near the road at night with no reflective clothing.
• Putting something straight out of the frier into your mouth.
• Driving without your seat-belt fastened.
• Playing with sharp objects.
• Putting a knife into a toaster when it's active.
• Nonchalantly putting your hands into the sink when you can't see what's in there. (This is how people slice their fingers open on kitchen knives)

 

[nanook]

the obvious workings of the world.

common sense is not truly common, it's only commonly available. you can arrive at common sense by simply observing how things work out.

theory of mind is not available out there (it's born from projections), therefore defining common sense as 'insights that are truly common' is not a common sense definition of common sense, lol.

you can't easily figure out what insights about the world are common by observing people, because you can't look into their heads by using sense. but you can observe their basic drives, as they manifest in action.

if you provide a pizza predator with opportunity and incentive, a pizza rape is bound to happen. what red baron describes is a highly detailed level of common sense that would escape me, i have never been in a prison, but the basic notion can't be overlooked, throw a bunch of criminals into a single building and crime is bound to happen. that is the Pe (extroverted perception) fraction. there may be some Ti theory of mind in his understanding of how trade works, i'm not in the mood to analyse it precisely.

 

[Hadoblado]

I would define common sense as the application of the adequately appropriate behaviour for the context in question.

- not trying to stand out
- not being creative
- preventing all foreseeable adverse consequence
- conservative estimation of own ability

Basically, acting in such a way that nobody can call you an idiot later.

 

[Brontosaurie]

btw has anyone read G.E. Moore's common sense philosophy? pretty funny stuff.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

I don't know how familiar you are with prison dialects and mentality. There are several popular expressions used in different ways to mean something else.

I know this from my native language, we have a special dialect called grypsera and interestingly enough words that used to refer to general awarness of the world and common sense meant "doing the right thing" or "doing" in the prison dialect.

Aside from that common sense would be what the general public (the common bit) agrees should be the course of action under given circumstances, which varies culturally.

 

[nanook]

this video demonstrates how people can loose common sense temporarily. while they begin to learn so called abstractions (which are not related to intuition or typology but a stage of development) they will be inclined to dismiss concrete reality in favor of artificial definitions. you didn't ask for your pizza to be raped but how could it ever slip your attention that your will is irrelevant to the actions of a pizza predator? because people tend to be taken in by the perspective they are busy practicing. once a perspective is well established the mind seeks a way to unite it with other older perspectives, by using each in the proper context. everything is true but partial. don't hit everyone on their head, just because you have that hammer. but admit that a hammer could provide a solution to many interpersonal conflicts.

Spoiler

http://youtu.be/aRSiIDV58Go

if you deal with concrete objects, you have to think in concrete manner. if you deal with abstract objects, you think in abstract manner. this teacher expects the student to think abstractly (taking arbitrary definitions into account) about a concrete object (a feather) because they think abstract is better than concrete, which it is not. this is why teachers, who are not integral, need to be shot in the head, using a blowpipe and paper bullets. as a friendly reminder. concreteness is real, you can't just outsmart it. i could have told you that, when i was 10 years old. 10 year olds may be bad at abstract thinking, but they know that it must not be applied to concrete objects. but evidently people loose their minds from 11 years onward and spout whatever lie they are told to believe in, because abstract thinking hooray. you can roll your eyes all you want, young lady. we make the definitions of truth, suck it up.

 

[Anktark]

It's an application of basic logic to a focus area without analyzing it deeply. Usually provides a relatively quick judgement of a situation/problem and is somewhat similar, but not identical to the usual way of assessing/solving problem(s) that comes from experience.

E.g.: it's common sense to first (at least try and) give a literal definition, before illustrating/clarifying it with an example.

 

[Yellow]

I don't know how familiar you are with prison dialects and mentality. There are several popular expressions used in different ways to mean something else.

There are a few hundred words that have different meaning (at least slightly) in prison, but there are relatively fewer phrases and even fewer full sentences that are entirely unique to prison in the US. Now, there a groups of people in prison who have their own cultural dialects that are spoken at home too, but institutional racism is more to blame for that one. However, this being a prison in the south, there was a healthy mix of cultures, so most phrases like "ain't got no sense" mean almost the same in prison and on the street. In fact, I later asked a more educated class in the same prison the same question and they gave me "normal" answers.

 

[deadpixel]

Common sense is ANY, but not limited to, Activities that somehow lead you to taking GED classes in prison for one hour of BBC evasion.

 

[QuickTwist]

http://intpforum.com/showthread.php?t=16948

 

[JansenDowel]

Common sense rarely ever makes sense to me. Its a sort of lazy attitude that is plagued my life since I was a lad.