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Common Sense, does it exist?

Last posted Sep 26, 2016 at 10:50AM EDT. Added Sep 15, 2016 at 03:42AM EDT
11 posts from 11 users

I'm quite curious on what you think about the concept of Common Sense. Is it really as common as the name implies? Does it really exists? Is it a subjective thing that varies from person to person?

It's not really that "common" anymore after the birth of big social media sites, you've all seen the stupid facebook and twitter posts right? None of those would exist if common sense really was common.

I might be completely wrong on this but this is just how I see it.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin

common sense is simply the views and actions needed in order to survive smartly within a situation with the least amount of effort possible with the tools available to you, as well as to gain the most benefit possible from the situation via these actions. it is often the least risky way of doing things, since other ways are either impractical (requiring a lot of effort to gain less in the long run than what was put in), too risky (putting your survivability at stake) or

for example, here's a scenario where common sense can be applied, as well as other examples of views not considered common sense.

you have a small gap that is impassable via a single step or jump, and the gap has a relatively high drop that can result in injuries like twisted ankles, broken feet and legs, etc.
common sense would be, that in order for you to get over the gap (the situation), you would need something to put over it (the effort needed) to get over (the benefit).
An impractical view would be to throw a lasso and catch something on the other side of the gap to create a steady rope for you to use to shimmy over, when you already have something you can easily put over the gap to use as a bridge. This is an example of impracticiality as you exert too much effort to solve a problem that could have been easily solved with other tools at your disposable for the same result.
A risky view would be simply to try and jump the gap and grab the ledge of the other side. This is considered risky as it relies a lot on variables/possibilities (such as windspeed, weight, agility, upperbody strength, structural integrity of the ledge, etc) and less on constants within the situation, so that there is no certain foreseeable outcome in where you benefit from your actions to accomplish the situation.

however, common sense does mean to work within your range of tools ( the constants), and sometimes the impractical or risky viewpoint may actually be the most sensible thing to do. If you're physically fit and you know that the ledge is structurally stable, this develops more constants within the scenario that you can rely on in order for you to survive the situation, as well as to get the benefits of it.
if you have nothing to lay over the gap but you do have rope and upperbody strength, it would be sensible to use those tools to overcome the situation, in face of the lack of tools that would be more efficient in overcoming a situation.

So yeah, TL;DR: common sense exists.

Last edited Sep 15, 2016 at 12:54PM EDT

I think this is way too vague and it honestly makes me kinda cringe saying stuff like "no one has common sense" or even worse "no one has common sense nowadays" makes me shudder practically it just reeks of "wake up sheeple".

Common sense assumes people act rationally. However, it's common knowledge that people are prone to act irrationally and stupidly. So long as people, depending on and sometimes regardless of their personal background, are prone to stupidity, common sense is not true reality but more an ideal of what reality should be.

I think of common sense as more doing what would be rational and/or logical to do.

I know plenty of people who at the very least try to apply logic and rationality to their actions every day. Humans are not perfect so we can't always do that, but there ar e those that at least do it to the best of their ability.

Unfortunately, not everyone even bothers to try applying logic and rationale to their lives, as evidenced by those stupid facebook and tumblr posts that everyone is well aware of by now.

Skeletor-sm

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