What is Common Sense and How Do We Use It?

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You just had a stressful day at work and now it is time to unwind. All day you have been thinking about the brand new bubble bath you just got from Bath and Body Works and how amazing it is going to be after the long day you have just had. You walk in the door, kick off your shoes, start the warm water, and you can already image the relaxing sensation your going to feel. Although, this morning in a hast to get to work, you didn’t realize you forgot to unplug your hair dryer. While reaching for the bubble bath in the medicine cabinet you accidently knock the hair dryer into the water in the tub. Now stop and think. What would you do in this situation? Your common sense should be telling you, “DO NOT reach in the water and just grab it!” Everyday, without even knowing it, we use something that is called “common sense.” Everyone knows what common sense is, but do we really know what it is or why we use it? In the next few pages we are going to analyze what common sense really is, how we use it rationally and how we use it morally.
We use the term “common sense” everyday, but what does “common sense” really mean? Common sense is defined as, “the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions” (Merriam-Webster). It seems like a very reasonable definition to me, so why is it so hard for some people to grasp common sense? The term common sense comes from Aristotle. He describes common sense as, “the higher-order perception that humans uniquely possess.” By using your five senses (sight, touch, smell, taste and hear) you should be able to decide to do or not to do something. If something is both red and hot, you use the senses sight and touch to determine those characteristics (Montanari). Basically, by using A...

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Common sense is very diverse. Aristotle has a point with his common-sense rules. You use your senses to decipher different things and make wise decisions. Grandpa isn’t very philosophical he just wants to know why you weren’t using your brain. Your brain makes decisions based on your morality sometimes. In a way all the types of common sense are linked. So now all you’re left with is a blow dryer in a bathtub. What do you do? My eyes could see that I dropped a plugged in appliance into the bathtub and my brain automatically told me NOT to just grab it. Reasonably, I did what my beliefs have always told me to do. I asked my mommy.

Works Cited

“Common Sense.” Merriam-Webster Online. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
Montanari, Dylan. “Common Sense.” The Chicago School of Media Theory Student Blog.
The Chicago School of Media Theory, 2010. Web. 9 Feb 2014.

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