I did not simply because I have always been use to being right when guessing. Which I know to an extent is wrong, to pride myself with knowing the answer, to think it is common sense that the first guess is always right. The book says that common sense comes from past experience, say trial and error if you will. You drop something, it will fall to the ground. Is that true? Or is that just base off of what had happened to us before and we just expect it to happen once we release something from our grasp? Is this a question? (I just threw that one in because I like asking questions I am thinking about).
Learning a "common sense" may just be like learning what is "good." It may very well just be as elusive as the wind. In the chapter, it describes "common sense" as postmodern. Of which, I agree. For most Minnesotans, it is common knowledge that because there has been 3-6 inches of snow on the ground it will be unlikely that school will be canceled or delayed. Move that to the East coast in recent times, they are experiencing something almost completely foreign and extreme to which we consider to be benign.
What is 'common sense' to me may not be 'common sense' to you. And having my own unique thoughts or expectations of something wouldn't be considered 'common sense'. I think it needs to be shared in order for it to be more viable or considered. We may all have Cartoon network on our Satellite/ Cable channels, but on Comcast it's on channel 42 whereas Dish may have it on 171. Most of the time that is not common knowledge depending on whether or not you have used either in your life time. Or even watch cartoons.
I really agree with a lot of what you say toward the beginning of your post. Your admission of your own misjudgment and recognition that others would probably act differently or have a different idea of common sense in that situation really demonstrates what I think the book is saying. Your emphasis on past experience is similar to what I wrote in my blog post and it is something I really took from the chapter. I agree that common sense can be very individual and we form our version of it based on our own contexts and experiences.
ReplyDeleteBut I also think your acknowledgement that your idea of common sense most likely differs from others in the class shows a level of understanding the book does not necessarily assume most people have. You did not pose questions about why other people would act differently or show a sense of disbelief or judgement because someone approaches a situation different than you. I think this is important because you mention being able to recognize common knowledge like driving rules and habits in Minnesota, but also having an individual idea of knowing what you need to do for schoolwork. I think this shows that there can be common, agreed upon ideas that we call common sense and individual, experience based ideas of common sense.
But I think I would probably disagree with your statement toward the end of the post about your own thoughts or ideas not being common sense because they are not shared with many others. I personally think that when the book says there is not much common about common sense it means it does not have to be an agreed upon or widely shared idea. I think the commonality of it is that it is common in terms of your thought process and your experience or life. I read the book as saying this type of common can count to be common sense.
And in terms of your cartoon network example, do you think there is a difference between common sense and common knowledge? You use both terms in your post so I was just wondering. You say it is not common knowledge that different carriers have the station on different channels. Is this an example of common sense or common knowledge since it is a fact of which channel number the network is on? Is this something people can really have opinions about? Just something I thought about while reading your post. I thought your ideas were interesting.