Common sense is a concept widely used in everyday life and in various disciplines, but what does it really mean? It is a notion that evokes the idea of practical and basic knowledge that most people share and use in their daily lives. Throughout history, various philosophers, psychologists and thinkers have tried to define and explain common sense from different perspectives.
Aristotelian Theory of Common Sense
One of the most influential theories about common sense is the one proposed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work "De Anima". According to Aristotle, common sense (koine aísthesis in Greek) is a faculty that integrates and coordinates the sensory perceptions of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This faculty allows human beings to unify the sensory information received to form a coherent representation of the world around them.
Functions of Common Sense according to Aristotle
For Aristotle, common sense plays several key functions in human perceptual experience:
- Perception of individual objects: Common sense allows us to identify and distinguish individual objects in the environment from perceptions sensory.
- Perception of sensible qualities: Through common sense, the sensible qualities of objects can be perceived, such as color, taste, smell, etc.
- Perception of space and time: Common sense contributes to the perception of the spatial and temporal dimension of objects and events in the environment.
According to Aristotle, common sense is a unifying principle that integrates the various sensory perceptions to form a coherent and meaningful representation of the external world.
Psychological Theory of Common Sense
From the perspective of contemporary psychology, common sense is defined as the set of knowledge and beliefs that people acquire through experience and social interaction. According to this vision, common sense has an eminently practical character and is based on intuition and the sense of reality shared by the majority of individuals in a society.
Characteristics of Common Sense in Psychology
Some of the most relevant characteristics of common sense from a psychological perspective are:
- Based on experience: Common sense is built from of everyday experience and interaction with the environment.
- Intuitive and non-formalized: Unlike scientific or technical knowledge, common sense is based on intuition and direct observation of reality.
- Socially shared: Common sense usually reflects the predominant beliefs and values in a culture or community, and is built through social interaction.
From this perspective, common sense fulfills adaptive and pragmatic functions in people's daily lives, facilitating decision making, problem solving, and interaction with others.
Philosophical Theory of Common Sense
A third approach to common sense arises from contemporary philosophy, which states that this concept refers to a set of implicit and not necessarily conscious knowledge that supports our beliefs, judgments and actions in the world. From this perspective, common sense is not trivial or superficial knowledge, but rather constitutes the basis of our cognitive constructions and our interactions with the environment.
Common Sense as an Interpretative Framework
For philosophers who approach common sense from this perspective, the concept acquires a hermeneutic and pragmatic character, functioning as an interpretive framework that guides our understanding of the world and our decisions in it. Some of the fundamental ideas of this theory are:
- Implicity: Common sense operates implicitly and automatically in many aspects of our lives, influencing our beliefs and actions without us being fully aware of it.
- Flexibility: Despite its character rooted in our mental structures, common sense is flexible and adaptable to new contexts and experiences.
- Interaction with specialized knowledge: Although common sense is based on non-formalized knowledge, it can interact in a complementary or conflicting manner with technical and scientific knowledge.
From this philosophical perspective, common sense is presented as an essential component of our cognitive and social life, shaping our perception of the world, our decision-making, and our interactions with others.
In summary, common sense is a multifaceted concept that has been approached from various disciplines throughout history. Whether as a unifying sensory faculty, a set of shared beliefs, or an implicit interpretive framework, common sense plays a crucial role in everyday life and in constructing our understanding of the world around us.