What Has Happened To Our Common Sense? The loss of internal knowledge

[zanzibarjones 1]

What has happened to our common sense?I mean at what point did we stop believing in anything that was written, read, spoken or said?It seems as though all of our knowledge is based upon books that have other peoples knowledge in it. No more experiments, just listen and learn.A prime example of this is our health. One day we say that this is good for you, and then next it's bad.Another example, Pluto was a planet. For years, it was 1 of nine in our solar system. Now all of a sudden, someone said it wasn't anymore, now it's not.-There's dark matter. No there isn't. Yes there is. Not really, it's now this.-The Sun is billions of years old and will only last until this date (really? how do you know that? Will you be alive then? Were you alive when it was made)- The Universe is ever expanding? Really? If something is expanding that means it has an outer edge. What's beyond the edge?Do not try to tell me something that you are not 100% sure of yourself. I will not believe you. Even if you swear it to be true, I am sure I will doubt you because common sense tells me otherwise.We are all given common sense for a reason.When will we as humans start listening to what is in front of our eyes, and believe what it is we know?

[truefusion 3]

What has happened to our common sense? [...] We are all given common sense for a reason.

Note the use of the phrase that we are given common sense. This means we do not originally have common sense (at the time of birth). What happened to it? Arguably, we never had it to begin with. For that reason it is possible for someone to live their entire life without common sense. Common sense can be grouped with pointing out the obvious. Do you know how many people have trouble pointing out the obvious? Did you know that a lot of proverbs and other wise sayings are made up of nothing but of things that point out the obvious? For that reason, simply pointing out the obvious can make you appear wise.

 

Nevertheless, one cannot simply state that they have common sense, for it is uncertain whether you will fail to make use of it under certain conditions. In fact, you may use it for one thing, and then later on in life fail to use it for the very same thing. What happened to our common sense then? You provide a list of things that try to imply that we lack common sense, only to later state that we have been given common sense for a reason. Let us just assume from now on that we do not have common sense and are perhaps attempting to learn what it is and how to use it and when to use it.

 

When will we as humans start listening to what is in front of our eyes, and believe what it is we know?

Doesn't reading and listening to others involve listening to what is in front of our eyes (assuming the person isn't blind)? Therefore they are indeed doing what you wish for.

[sheepdog 10]

I don't think I equate common sense the same way you do. Some of the things you mention involve advances in science and things we learn from those advances. For example, many years ago people thought the world was flat. After all, that is exactly what they did see when they looked, a flat expance as far as the eye could see. So back then it would of seemed to be common sense to accept the world as being flat. I think common sense is more about things we know and understand, things that cannot change, like being smart enough not to stick your finger in a light socket. Or being smart enough to see the big picture. To understand how things work, and how changing something may not have the desired effect you hoped for because by changing one thing, other things also changed, your basic cause and effect. Way too many people don't think problems all the way threw and end up making matters worse, to me that is what common sense is about.

[Parubilla 0]

I don't agree with you when you say that we lost our common sense because we don't investigate or learn things from our own anymore, because I think one of the main reasons that we live in community and share things with people is to learn from other people experiences, I don't think we are born with common sense, because we see babies trying to put it fingers in the outlet (and we all think that's not to have common sense because we all know that if you put your fingers in the outlet you could get electrocuted), so as we start to grow by watching and listening to all of the things around us we learn what we call common sense, that I believe as the other person said is the ability to point out the obvious, but since is something we learn from the people around us and the experiences from other people, may be people we don't know but we are certain of that experience, then if no one has told you not to stick your tongue to a poll you are probably going to do it. I believe is really stubborn of a person not to believe what he learns from the experiences from other people and his own experiences, but at the same time this can be contradictory because common sense it's not the same for all the people, for example, a kid who has grown in a very violent environment, for him is just common sense to beat someone until that person is half dead because that individual insulted him, but for a kid growing up in a normal environment the right thing to do is ask for an apology from the other person, and that's the common sense for him, so which one is right?, there's not universal common sense that everyone should have because is not possible for all of us to see the things the same way, so I don't believe we lost it is just that we haven't found a balance on how things should be seen.

[contactskn 2]

Dear friends these type of changes in results of researches etc. take place due to the continuous progress in scientific equipments and their use in various researches. It might be possible that in olden days what ever results on a particular research was obtained was on the basis of those machinery and equipments of those olden days which were not so advanced and now that they have their computerized counterparts which give more accurate results which many a times gives new results as such. On the other hand many a times it may be possible that the scientist who discovered or researched a finding in some olden days might have left some points related to the same unaddressed which some one else addressed and found to be a point on which research should be made again which gives such new results as such.

[Iniyila 2]

i completely agree, if we do not try to learn things our selves we will loose our common sense. learning ourselves doesn't mean that like you should fall from height to know its dangerous, it means that we have to try to figure out and solve our problem without any ones help first and if it didn't worked then why not getting other helps. using others experiences is something different we all should use others experiences and this is not at all in any opposite with doing and learning things ourselves. just like a teacher that teaches you, he knows every quiz answer and can tell you but you should solve it yourself to learn something otherwise you will not. about saying all of our knowledge is coming from books written by others, actually you read that books to get basic things you need. it never means that those knowledges are enough, if you go to university after end of every degree like B.S. or M.S or PhD you should do something new for your final thesis. so its completely wrong to say we have lost our common sense for using others knowledge or experiences because you always are using them to create or prove something new which no one has ever done (at least in your country). and after all i should say i don't think we lost our common sense at all but the style of it has been changes. just one of my experience is when i play some game online i find someone who has find a way for getting win or being top player, this is a common sense too. and for getting your common sense working again (if it has stopped ) you can try to solve every problem you see around yourself by yourself! like trying to fix your TV and when you failed don't think about why i have done that, think about this "I have at least learned how to open a TV!".

[anwiii 17]

this whole topic is a joke. common sense is all relative. we use the term "common sense" to judge others that don't think like us. i just got done posting in the death penalty thread. ofcourse a lot of people will say, if someone kills someone else without "reason" or a reason society doesn't take in to consideration, of course, fry the killer! it's just common sense, right? if someone takes a life, that life doesn't deserve to live either. common sense. B.S.! is what i say. "common sense" is a term used to justify what is right and right. i have to admit. i have used the term before. i have met people that in my eyes, they were just plain stupid and had no common sense. but was i right to think that way? ofcourse not. i don't know everything to even begin to know what true common sense is except if i were to relate it to how society lives and thinks in general. but see, this is my whole point. i have always been one to live against typical society.....and for good reason. there is more to life than just "common sense". your right. we aren't born with common sense. we learn it or don't learn it. but before we ask where it went, we really should talk about what it is and if it's even worth talking about at all. if a kid is playing in the living room and decides to stick his finger in the wall socket only to get electrocuted and get hurt, obviously common sense would be that if the kid doesn't want to get hurt again, he wont stick his finger in the wall socket anymore. but what if the child wasn't born with a fully developed brain? we know from the past that these special needs kids need extra care. does this mean the child has no common sense and this is why they need special care? is common sense another way of saying that 1 person is better than the other? let's say that we agree that these kids don't have any common sense whatsoever. does it mean we have nothing to learn from them? do people with absolutely no common sense have nothing to offer this world? if your thinking inside the box, then ofcourse, those kids have nothing to offer or to teach. but if you think outside the box, you can quickly realize that someone with absolutely no common sense can actually teach others common sense indirectly without even knowing it....or the common sense that *I* see at least. for example, has anyone ever watched the special olympics? it's a bunch of people who pretty much don't even know why they are there. they are running a race and don't even know why. then we see them stop on a dime and run the opposite way just so a friend can catch up and they can finish the race together. this kids weren't born with common sense and they don't even know what common sense is for the most part, so how is it that we can learn common sense from no common sense?someone who has to ask where common sense went to isn't really opening their eyes to what they really want to know. in fact, it has nothing to do with common sense. common sense is relative. typically, there is no right or wrong. there just is. yea, we can label things right and wrong, but by doing that, we get further from the ultimate truth. it's easy to judge and ask where common sense went without truelly understanding the real issues...

[Baniboy 3]

Another example, Pluto was a planet. For years, it was 1 of nine in our solar system. Now all of a sudden, someone said it wasn't anymore, now it's not.
-There's dark matter. No there isn't. Yes there is. Not really, it's now this.
-The Sun is billions of years old and will only last until this date (really? how do you know that? Will you be alive then? Were you alive when it was made)
- The Universe is ever expanding? Really? If something is expanding that means it has an outer edge. What's beyond the edge?

Perhaps if you would bother to educate yourself and learn how those decisions are made, you'd figure it out. And don't tell me you did, because by looking at the questions I see you don't know enough to judge why Pluto isn't regarded as a planet anymore, or why is the sun dated to have existed for as long as it has been done by measurements. And then you go into cosmology with your dark matter and expansion questions which are even more ridiculous. And they don't even have anything to do with common sense

I don't mean to mock, if you misunderstood. Common sense has its place, but just don't mix your "common sense" with things that require more than what you can see and experience. Sorry to disappoint, but the world isn't all nicely tied in packages for you to process. Common sense uses the information that you already have to draw conclusions, you don't use common sense alone to find out the age of the sun. But go ahead and try.

This reminds me of your other topic where you said that you don't 'believe' in black holes. Yea, that was pretty weird, too. To me it seems that instead of acquiring some knowledge about the subject, you use your "common sense" and draw conclusions based on what you already know (which is flawed). And then the result is this:

really? how do you know that? Will you be alive then? Were you alive when it was made

Sheepdog is correct with the flat earth thingy too.
Edited January 19, 2011 by Baniboy (see edit history)

[iAssistant 1]

I agree, most of the people just believe on what they read without reasoning out. It is easier that way than to bother themselves. One of the examples are my professors in college who are just relying in books, teaching according to what is written in the books. I prefer a teacher who share knowledge base on experience, experimentation and what the knowledge is updated for there are many obsolete lessons in the book today.