The Uncommonality of Common Sense
It’s far more idiosyncratic than we realized
I struggled continuously throughout my school years, but while my grades were less than ideal, I was repeatedly praised for my common sense. That’s probably why I’ve always been curious about it and am sometimes surprised by what others consider it to be. Because, if you think about it, common sense is pretty tricky to define.
On its surface level, common sense refers to knowledge or beliefs that are obvious to everyone, or should be. Yet, a more precise definition is oddly challenging to pin down. Even scientists have struggled to clarify it. In fact, it wasn’t until this year that anyone even tried to measure how common common sense really is or what qualifies as it — and they found that common sense isn’t common at all.
Our Reliance on Societial Common Sense
People have been advocating for common sense since at least the 18th century. Perhaps the most famous and influential arguments for common sense came on January 10, 1776, when political philosopher and writer Thomas Paine published his pamphlet literally titled Common Sense.
While initially published anonymously, the pamphlet laid out Paine’s arguments favoring American independence from the British. Within the first three months…
