Common Sense
What is the nature of common sense?
Is it the same thing as IntuitionIntuition
Intuition
[[Hume]] speaks of intuitive custom being what allows us to understand cause/effect & connect ideas. (See [[Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]] and [[Reason#Is man essentially a rational animal]])
Hume speaks of this custom ([[Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding|Enquiry]], Sec 6, Para 22):
As nature has taught us the use of our limbs, without giving us the knowledge of the muscles and nerves, by which they are actuated; so she has implanted in us an inst...?
- can common sense contradict itself? ContradictionsCommon Sense
Common Sense
What is the nature of common sense?
Is it the same thing as [[Intuition]]?
can common sense contradict itself? ContradictionsCommon Sense
Common Sense
What is the nature of common sense?
Is it the same thing as [[Intuition]]?
can common sense contradict itself? [[Common Sense#Contradictions|Contradictions]]
Reid
Common Sense precedes [[Reason]]
principles of common sense: "certain principles…which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them." ([[Reid, Inquiry & Essays]], pg 2...
Reid
Common Sense precedes [[Reason]]
principles of common sense: "certain principles…which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them." ([[Reid, Inquiry & Essays]], pg 2...
Reid
- Common Sense precedes ReasonReason
Reason
reason is the "natural light" DescartesDescartes
Rene Descartes
Background Info
1596-1650
educated at Univ of Paris
Catholic Christian
not an academic
wrote [[Descartes, Meditations of First Philosophy]] from a [[Rationalism
rationalistic]] perspective
claims he is making a whole new start in philosophy
D. arrived at a certain and evident knowledge of the truth. He wants to see if he can persuade others by the same method that he himself used.
...
what is the difference b/t reason & thinking?
what is thinking?
processing information?
in this case, can an animal think?
what is reason?
a type of thinking?
can you only accept what has been proven by reason?
reason is like a telescope: it lets us see things clearer; but it must have ... - principles of common sense: "certain principles…which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them." (Reid, Inquiry & Essays, pg 20)
- common principles that everyone believes, even if they deny it
Contradictions
Common Sense can contradict itself Example: If you taste a thing on one day, and then get sick and taste the same thing the next day, it will taste different. Your common sense tells you: 1) that the food hasn't changed taste; 2) that you should trust your senses; and 3) that you can trust your memory. This leads to a contradiction