The Evolution of Common Sense
August 25, 2014
Apprentice Kathy
introduction
Master suggested that I use the Oxford English Dictionary for my next paper. To that end, I chose "common sense" to determine if Master has any...
research
Etymology: Greek κοινὴ αἴσθησις, Latin sensus commūnis, French sens commun.
†1. An ‘internal’ sense which was regarded as the common bond or centre of the five senses, in which the various impressions received were reduced to the unity of a common consciousness. Obs.
[1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum vi. xxv. (Tollem. MS.) ,
Þe lyme of þe comyn wit [organum sensus communis] is bounde. The whiche lyme is centrum and middel of all þe parties.
1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure xxiv. ii,
These are the v. wyttes..Fyrst, commyn wytte, and than ymaginacyon, Fantasy, and estymacyon truely, And memory.]
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. i. f. 3/2,
They [sc. eyes] were ordeyned of nature in the former part [of the head]..that they might carye visible thinges to ye commune sens.
1606 L. Bryskett Disc. Civill Life 123
Which common sense, is a power or facultie of the sensitiue soule..and is therefore called common, because it receiueth commonly the formes or images which the exteriour senses present vnto it, and hath power to distinguish the one from the other.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. i. ii. vii. 35
Inner Senses are three in number, so called because they are within the braine-panne, as Common Sense, Phantasie, Memory... This common sense is the Iudge or Moderator of the rest, by whom we discerne all differences of obiects.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. i. iii. xiii,
The external senses and the common sense considered together are like a circle with five lines drawn from the circumference to the centre.
1842 Sir W. Hamilton in Reid's Wks. (1872) II. 756/2 (note) ,
Common Sense (κοινὴ αἴσθησις) was employed by Aristotle to denote the faculty in which the various reports of the several senses are reduced to the unity of a common apperception.
Based on the last reference, the obsolete meaning of "common sense" is more akin to spirit or psyche. In effect, this definition tells us nothing and that is, no doubt, hwy it became obsolete.
2.a. The endowment of natural intelligence possessed by rational beings; ordinary, normal or average understanding; the plain wisdom which is everyone's inheritance. (This is ‘common sense’ at its minimum, without which one is foolish or insane.) †Formerly also in pl., in phr. besides his common senses: out of his senses or wits, ‘beside himself’.
1535 G. Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 36,
I am suer T[indale] is not so farre besydis his comon sencis as to saye the dead bodye hereth cristis voyce.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. f. 13,
Vnlesse he be voide of all common sense and natural wit of man.
1602 T. Fitzherbert Apol. 20 a,
I referre me to the iudgement of any man that hath but common sence.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding i. iii. 16
He would be thought void of common Sense, who asked on the one side, or on the other side went about to give a Reason, Why it is impossible for the same thing to be, and not to be.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 70. ¶2
A Reader of plain common Sense, that would neither relish nor comprehend an Epigram of Martial.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. in Wks. (1841) 46 note,
Common sense..a sense common to all, except lunatics and ideots.
1799 J. Mackintosh Study Law Nature & Nations in Wks. (1846) I. 363
Whoever thoroughly understands such a science, must be able to teach it plainly to all men of common sense.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 404
Common sense will not teach us metaphysics any more than mathematics.
I am hopeful that "the plain wisdom which is everyone's inheritance" will be removed from future editions of the dictionary. How can "wisdom" be an aspect of everyone? From 1744 we learn that all people, lunatics and idiots excepted, have common sense.
2b. More emphatically: Good sound practical sense; combined tact and readiness in dealing with the every-day affairs of life; general sagacity.
1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) xx. 100
There is not (said a shrewd wag) a more uncommon thing in the world than common sense..By common sense we usually and justly understand the faculty to discern one thing from another, and the ordinary ability to keep ourselves from being imposed upon by gross contradictions, palpable inconsistencies, and unmask'd imposture. By a man of common sense we mean one who knows, as we say, chalk from cheese.
1775 J. Priestley Exam. Dr. Reid's Inq. (ed. 2) 127
Common sense..in common acceptation..has long been appropriated..to that capacity for judging of common things that persons of middling capacities are capable of.
1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington iv,
Rich in saving common-sense.
1888 Wormall in Times 16 Jan. 8/1
The general demand was for intelligence, sagacity, soundness of judgment, clearness of perception, and that sanity of thinking called common sense.
In the 18th century, "Common sense" has evolved to mean "good sound practical sense" to deal with daily affairs. The reference from 1726 limits common sense to avoiding contradictions and inconsistencies.
2†c. Ordinary or untutored perception. Obs.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost i. i. 57
To know..Things hid and bard from common sense..is studies god-like recompence.
2d. As a quality of things said or done (= ‘something accordant to or approved by common sense’).
1803 J. Mackintosh Def. Peltier in Wks. (1846) III. 270,
I ask you again, Gentlemen, is this common sense?
1866 G. MacDonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. (1878) iii. 34
To him it was just common sense, and common sense only.
1885 Law Rep.: Chancery Div. 29 467
It is only common sense that..you should look at the whole of the document together.
3. The general sense, feeling, or judgement of mankind, or of a community.
1596 Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene iv. x. sig. I6,
That all the cares and euill which they meet, May..Seeme gainst common sence to them most sweet.
1663 J. Spencer Disc. Prodigies (1665) 390
These are to be received by the common sense of a Nation, as Gods warning pieces.
1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 1
The common sense of Mankind.
1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous iii. 112,
I am content, Hylas, to appeal to the common Sense of the World for the Truth of my Notion.
a1871 G. Grote Aristotle (1872) II. App. ii. 285
What Aristotle..defines as matters of common opinion and belief includes all that is usually meant, and properly meant, by Common Sense—what is believed by all men or by most men.
1874 H. Sidgwick Methods of Ethics iii. xi. §6. 333
The promise which the Common Sense of mankind recognises as binding.
The reference from 1871 defines common sense as "what is believed by all men or by most men." This must be a very limited amount of information. We have grave concerns with this definition using the phrase "believed by all men", instead of the more reassuring "what is known by all men".
†1. An ‘internal’ sense which was regarded as the common bond or centre of the five senses, in which the various impressions received were reduced to the unity of a common consciousness. Obs.
[1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum vi. xxv. (Tollem. MS.) ,
Þe lyme of þe comyn wit [organum sensus communis] is bounde. The whiche lyme is centrum and middel of all þe parties.
1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure xxiv. ii,
These are the v. wyttes..Fyrst, commyn wytte, and than ymaginacyon, Fantasy, and estymacyon truely, And memory.]
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. i. f. 3/2,
They [sc. eyes] were ordeyned of nature in the former part [of the head]..that they might carye visible thinges to ye commune sens.
1606 L. Bryskett Disc. Civill Life 123
Which common sense, is a power or facultie of the sensitiue soule..and is therefore called common, because it receiueth commonly the formes or images which the exteriour senses present vnto it, and hath power to distinguish the one from the other.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. i. ii. vii. 35
Inner Senses are three in number, so called because they are within the braine-panne, as Common Sense, Phantasie, Memory... This common sense is the Iudge or Moderator of the rest, by whom we discerne all differences of obiects.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. i. iii. xiii,
The external senses and the common sense considered together are like a circle with five lines drawn from the circumference to the centre.
1842 Sir W. Hamilton in Reid's Wks. (1872) II. 756/2 (note) ,
Common Sense (κοινὴ αἴσθησις) was employed by Aristotle to denote the faculty in which the various reports of the several senses are reduced to the unity of a common apperception.
Based on the last reference, the obsolete meaning of "common sense" is more akin to spirit or psyche. In effect, this definition tells us nothing and that is, no doubt, hwy it became obsolete.
2.a. The endowment of natural intelligence possessed by rational beings; ordinary, normal or average understanding; the plain wisdom which is everyone's inheritance. (This is ‘common sense’ at its minimum, without which one is foolish or insane.) †Formerly also in pl., in phr. besides his common senses: out of his senses or wits, ‘beside himself’.
1535 G. Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 36,
I am suer T[indale] is not so farre besydis his comon sencis as to saye the dead bodye hereth cristis voyce.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. f. 13,
Vnlesse he be voide of all common sense and natural wit of man.
1602 T. Fitzherbert Apol. 20 a,
I referre me to the iudgement of any man that hath but common sence.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding i. iii. 16
He would be thought void of common Sense, who asked on the one side, or on the other side went about to give a Reason, Why it is impossible for the same thing to be, and not to be.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 70. ¶2
A Reader of plain common Sense, that would neither relish nor comprehend an Epigram of Martial.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. in Wks. (1841) 46 note,
Common sense..a sense common to all, except lunatics and ideots.
1799 J. Mackintosh Study Law Nature & Nations in Wks. (1846) I. 363
Whoever thoroughly understands such a science, must be able to teach it plainly to all men of common sense.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 404
Common sense will not teach us metaphysics any more than mathematics.
I am hopeful that "the plain wisdom which is everyone's inheritance" will be removed from future editions of the dictionary. How can "wisdom" be an aspect of everyone? From 1744 we learn that all people, lunatics and idiots excepted, have common sense.
2b. More emphatically: Good sound practical sense; combined tact and readiness in dealing with the every-day affairs of life; general sagacity.
1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) xx. 100
There is not (said a shrewd wag) a more uncommon thing in the world than common sense..By common sense we usually and justly understand the faculty to discern one thing from another, and the ordinary ability to keep ourselves from being imposed upon by gross contradictions, palpable inconsistencies, and unmask'd imposture. By a man of common sense we mean one who knows, as we say, chalk from cheese.
1775 J. Priestley Exam. Dr. Reid's Inq. (ed. 2) 127
Common sense..in common acceptation..has long been appropriated..to that capacity for judging of common things that persons of middling capacities are capable of.
1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington iv,
Rich in saving common-sense.
1888 Wormall in Times 16 Jan. 8/1
The general demand was for intelligence, sagacity, soundness of judgment, clearness of perception, and that sanity of thinking called common sense.
In the 18th century, "Common sense" has evolved to mean "good sound practical sense" to deal with daily affairs. The reference from 1726 limits common sense to avoiding contradictions and inconsistencies.
2†c. Ordinary or untutored perception. Obs.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost i. i. 57
To know..Things hid and bard from common sense..is studies god-like recompence.
2d. As a quality of things said or done (= ‘something accordant to or approved by common sense’).
1803 J. Mackintosh Def. Peltier in Wks. (1846) III. 270,
I ask you again, Gentlemen, is this common sense?
1866 G. MacDonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. (1878) iii. 34
To him it was just common sense, and common sense only.
1885 Law Rep.: Chancery Div. 29 467
It is only common sense that..you should look at the whole of the document together.
3. The general sense, feeling, or judgement of mankind, or of a community.
1596 Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene iv. x. sig. I6,
That all the cares and euill which they meet, May..Seeme gainst common sence to them most sweet.
1663 J. Spencer Disc. Prodigies (1665) 390
These are to be received by the common sense of a Nation, as Gods warning pieces.
1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 1
The common sense of Mankind.
1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous iii. 112,
I am content, Hylas, to appeal to the common Sense of the World for the Truth of my Notion.
a1871 G. Grote Aristotle (1872) II. App. ii. 285
What Aristotle..defines as matters of common opinion and belief includes all that is usually meant, and properly meant, by Common Sense—what is believed by all men or by most men.
1874 H. Sidgwick Methods of Ethics iii. xi. §6. 333
The promise which the Common Sense of mankind recognises as binding.
The reference from 1871 defines common sense as "what is believed by all men or by most men." This must be a very limited amount of information. We have grave concerns with this definition using the phrase "believed by all men", instead of the more reassuring "what is known by all men".
conclusion
We follow table includes all six definitions of common sense.
Number
1. 2a. 2b. 2c. 2d. 3. |
Year (s)
1398-1842 1535 1726 1598 1803 1596 |
Status
obsolete obsolete |
Judging by the plurality of definitions for "Common sense", we are disappointed both, by the time expended and by the lack of a simple, definable definition.
Paradoxically, we must conclude that Master has common sense based upon all definitions and that he does not have common sense based on definition 2a.
On a personal note, I now know why Apprentice Tyler despises any research that utilizes the Oxford English (vide).
Paradoxically, we must conclude that Master has common sense based upon all definitions and that he does not have common sense based on definition 2a.
On a personal note, I now know why Apprentice Tyler despises any research that utilizes the Oxford English (vide).