The existence and function of Common Sense in the human is a concept that seems to be gaining traction as neurological research progresses. From a neurological standpoint it is now understood that each neuron has the capacity for much more capability than just to be a hose for transmitting chemical signals to the next point. Neurons are now known to have logical and computational capabilities within a single unit, and to have multiple inputs of information to work on within that unit.
Understanding that the brain contains such capacities lends credence to John Locke’s theories. Locke rejected the idea that humans are born with specific knowledge already embedded within them, and asserted that the mind is a “blank slate” or “tabula rasa”, upon which life experiences are written.
However, Locke also asserted that there exists an innate capacity within the human brain that gives the human an inborn capability of discernment.(1) For example a baby quickly discerns his mother’s face from strangers faces.
This capacity requires several innate abilities: sensory input and storage; discrimination between new inputs and stored information; judgment of the similarities and differences between them. Taken together these abilities can be called discernment.
This process of discernment is an internal judgment which results in the basic understandings of reality that are implied by consistent observations. For example the standard issue of flames being hot: the first observation (finger in the fire) results in a cause / effect judgment that flames can produce the pain of heat. The second observation reinforces the first, and also produces an idea of consistency of reality.
The resulting knowledge that flames can produce the pain of heat becomes embedded and can be consistently found across cultural, language, racial, age and sexual barriers. It is common knowledge, or common sense.
Moreover it is a fundamental truth, and it is known through the capacity of discernment that is inherent, or innate in the brain.
Thomas Reid, the Scottish philosopher, was one of the founders of the “common sense” philosophy. According to Reid, common sense comprises “those tenets that we cannot help but believe, given that we are constructed the way we are constructed.”
G. E. Moore outlined some of the basic truths that are not deniable, probabilistically speaking. In other words, their truth is far more probable than the antithetical proposition. Some of these include the basics of existence: I have a body that is alive; it is near to some objects, far from others.(1) Descartes claimed that the basic truth is that, by doubting even his doubt, he was at a minimum thinking; thinking is the basic reality, the fundamental undeniable truth.
Locke claimed intuitive knowledge to be the highest form and independent of reason:
“I call [it] “intuitive knowledge” , which is certain beyond all doubt, and needs no probation, nor can have any; this being the highest of all human certainty. In this consists the evidence of all those maxims which nobody has any doubt about, but every man (does not , as is said, only assent to , but) knows to be true, as soon as ever they are proposed to the understanding. In the discovery of and assent to these truths, there is no use of the discursive faculty, no need of reasoning , but they are known by a superior and higher degree of evidence.”(2)
We have already encountered some fundamental truths that are necessary for rational thought: the First Principles. These are known to be true by inspection and discernment. They cannot be proven empirically, yet they are essentials to Reason. They are known to be true because the antithesis to each principle is impossible to accept in light of its affect on reason itself, and our personal apprehension of reality. (This is why Nietzsche’s rejection of the First Principles became the basis for his “Anti-Rationalism”; his rejection resulted in the destruction of the possibility rational thought and the impossibility of reason to be implemented in his philosophies).
What happens if one rejects the tenets that make up common sense? According to Reid, “the collection of tenets that make up common sense are consistent with one another, and non-optional to those living as a human being does”.(2) It is possible to live under the contradictions that are produced when common sense is not accepted. But such non-coherences and paradoxes lead to choppiness and instability in one’s life and thought. It essentially amounts to lying to oneself and creates the pursuit of nonsensical agendas and beliefs. It disables reason.
The value of common sense is two-fold. It points directly to the existence of external, objective truth; and it gives a basic platform from which to launch rational thought and reason itself. And, best of all, it is inherent within us, if we choose to cultivate it.
(1) Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” 1693, Prometheus, p555.
(2) Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” 1693, Prometheus, p579.
(3) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moore/#6
(4) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reid/#CS
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