# General Discussion > Opinions >  Common Sense?

## Reiku

Common sense, I run afoul of this _alot._

(Lord is that going to be quoted out of context  :Relieved:  )

To clarify, I run into situations where "Common Sense" is in fact "Common Ignorance."

For example: The idea that you can't cut steel with a mail-order katana. You can, I've done it--_on accident._ I'll send you pictures sometime.

What I've come to realize is that "Common Sense" means "What most people believe to be true"--but being in the majority doesn't automaticallly make you right. Being _right_ makes you right, regardless of who agrees or doesn't agree with you.

There's an interesting quote I came across recently--on a Dungeons & Dragons forum, ironically enough:




> Yes, common sense will vary from person to person, but there has to be some basic level at which we agree on core assumptions, or the game is meaningless.


Profound isn't it?

Sadly, that seems to be the big problem with the world--that basic level that
we agree on seems pretty small. Is the game meaningless? And if so, should we muddle on anyway regardless of everyone else being crazy/superstitious/heretics for not agreeing with us?

What do you think?  :Evil:

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## Kinsao

I just spent ages typing a response to this, to be told 'this forum does not accept new posts' -  :Mad:  - this is a kind of test post to see if it works this time. My apologies - I don't have time now to re-think/re-type my response, but I hopefully will return here!

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## Thor

I'm a bit tired, so I apoligize if this post sucks. It's all about your view on things, and how other people view things. Common sense to one person is definently not common sense to another.

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## sl0thmachin3

I believe common sense depends a lot on the person's experiences, level of education and comprehension of lessons learned from both past experience and study.

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## Kinsao

Part of what I was going to say earlier... in the OP, the example that the katana won't cut steel, yet Reiku discovers that's not true... really, the original assumption is more like what we would call 'common knowledge' (which may or may not be true), rather than common _sense_. Common sense usually refers to something that is obvious... for example, "If your knee is injured, don't run too hard on it - it's only common sense", or "It's common sense to iron your shirt before you have an interview"... also may I add, common sense seems to be noteable by its absence (even we have a saying in England, "Common sense is not so common!"), for instance, you can often think of an example that someone perhaps ran hard on their injured knee and made it worse, or didn't bother to iron their shirt, or something like that... and people will look and say, "Why didn't you use your common sense?!" meaning why didn't you do the obviously sensible thing?!

I did have a more articulate way of putting it, but I can't do all my rethinking of my first post again, my brain is too tired...  :Sad:

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## Reiku

FYI, using the back button sometimes recovers your text on a borked post--then you can just cut and paste to try posting it again.

You're right about the "common sense vs common knowlege" though. Unfortunately it seems like nobody uses english properly anymore, at least not here in the states--myself included. This brings to mind another "common" word: _Common Usage_  :Laughing: 

Also somthing that causes problems.

In fact, while I was posting on the D&D forum I got that quote from, I responed to a thread about whether you should be able to to piercing damage with a longsword in the game. Since I have some knowlege of swords, I gave my two cents--and was later attacked by someone claiming my statemets were "ludicrous". He then provided a list of corrections, amoung which was:




> With a slash, you drag the edge of the blade across the target, making a wound that is quite shallow compared to the depth of penetration from a piercing attack.





> ...The attack you described is a draw-cut. Not a 'slash.' Slash and Cut are generic terms for the way you swing the weapon, with an arc, rather than pushing it forward, as in a thrust. A chopping attack is a cut - it is a slash. Eh.


Yeah, and an uppercut isn't a punch.  :Blush: 

It's funny how people get used to using words a certain way, and tend to think of that as the word's only meaning. When you think about it, most words in english have many different usages, and often people can end up in an argument over semantics when they are actually saying the same thing.  :Laughing:

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## Mars Man

Some nice posts here...and the one above made me think--which I do do sometimes...hee,hee....

It kind of goes to prove the idea that although 'sense' is common to all humans, in whatever degree, common sense is flighty. (American Joke--as the young kids sometimes jokingly say here in Japan) hee,hee......

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## Reiku

That reminds me--the word usage problem is especially bad when you have to translate across languages. Many Japanese martial arts terms do not show up in alomst any dictionary or translation resource, and the only explanation I can think of is that it is because they are specialized terms which are not used outside the field of martial arts.

I suppose an American example would be the word "shoot". To most of us, it means to fire a gun, or to move or propel something very quickly like a bullet. To an english speaking photographer, however, "shoot" can also mean taking a picture of something. So the phrase "shoot that guy" could easily be misinterpreted when spoken between a hit man and a photojournalist, because each would use the meaning most significant to them.  :Evil:

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## PRIZMATIC

:Blush:  "Common sense" is a sense of a reality...
"Reality" is not subject to people... So they can agree only to "contract"...
But "contract" - a subjective reality... :Blush:

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## Tsuyoiko

I found a ton of quotes on this subject. Here are my favourites:


> Common sense is not so common.





> It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.





> Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.





> Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.





> I can never fear that things will go far wrong where common sense has fair play.





> Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.





> Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.





> In any war, the first casualty is common sense, and the second is free and open discussion

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## nurizeko

Common sense is unassailable, infalible, its a set thing, its peoples moronity or just ignorance which corrupts the word.
Much like the way teenagers freely abuse the word love.

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## MeAndroo

Common sense is a series of conclusions that any rational, logical person should be able to arrive at without much effort. Kinsao's examples are perfect illustrations of this. The one I remember being scolded about as a child was not touching a stove after it's just been turned off. 

Common knowledge is more regionally specific than common sense. Common knowledge also doesn't necessarily apply to everyone, as common sense _ should_, as it is in regard to information one would naturally come across in the course of a typical existence.

That said, I think most people HAVE common sense, they just don't USE it. My friends taught me a game that directly applies this idea in traffic. The next time you see someone do something stupid, like cut off an 18-wheeler, or turn right from the left lane, think to yourself "is this person an ass or an idiot?" An ass would knowingly inconvenience others because he doesn't want to be inconvenienced. An idiot does so unknowingly.

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## PRIZMATIC

:Blush:  Small "digression" to a theme of "common sense":
I continue to be interested in destiny of one elderly Korean woman (from " Russian koreans"), which tries to return with family on the historical native land, to South Korea. Only yesterday she has returned from Moscow where met the consul who having caused her to itself, he has not given her the visa of necessary to her that she " badly speaks on korean ". Besides he also has abused her that "she" had the nerve " to not be born in Korea "... As it wanted to me to see it " the abrupt Korean guy " in those conditions in which they lived " Russian koreans "... I would look at him then also him " the Korean language "...
It is personally difficult for me to catch "common sense" in such " humiliation of tribesmen "... If it not " psychological indemnification " in "self-estimation"... Probably therefore the president of South Korea so " urgently demands from Japan " all new and new acknowledgement(confirmations) of friendship... (it about his last reference about a disputable territorial question with Japan).
I can add still "complexes" in consciousness " southern koreans ":
They probably do not know, that in Russia of (he was lost in automobile crash) one young korean (from Russian koreans), which else at a life people considered and count to this day " the envoy of the God ", in his songs there were real prophecies (switching and his own destruction), connected not only with Russia... Also that anybody and never from Southern of Northern Koreans will not make that " this guy " could make... He could bring "words" in which the God was...
Though half koreans,in South Korea, trust in the Buddha and the Christ, the God does not give them "enlightenment"... The God comes there where it require more... He has come to " Russian koreans " by "young musician" , having heard prays of " worn out souls "... 
And it is real "common sense".... :Angel:

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## PRIZMATIC

Note:In a place "they" in the text was "we" (it is a mistake), it is correct "they".I have corrected this mistake of the text. :Blush:

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## dreamer

Well... to me, common sense is just what any people from your group/society/world would have done in some situations...
For exemple, you see a fire and you call the fire station

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