Dividing common sense

There are so many people out there who lack common sense. Have you ever heard the stories about how a lot of Americans can’t even find Canada on a map? Wait. Is that really common sense?

What exactly is common sense? Do you know? How about I just come up with my own definition? Common sense is what you should know without having to be told. A lack of common sense could be viewed as a form of mental deficiency.

So is the location of Canada really common sense? Does it really make you any dumber for never having been told that Canada is to our North? Don’t get me wrong. People really should know this fact. I just don’t think that it fits my definition.

Years ago, I decided to keep my definition for common sense and extract a couple of related concepts that are generally bundled up with common sense. Once again, common sense is what you should know without ever being told.

Where does that leave knowledge of our neighbors? I consider it to be common knowledge. Common knowledge refers to things that you really should know, but not knowing something in this category of knowledge does not disprove intelligence since the information had to have been provided to you at some point.

That’s not the only term that I derived from common sense. A lot of people think the value of schooling is common sense. Or America being a free country is common sense. Or even thinking that it’s common sense to view warm and sunny weather as pleasant weather. What do these things have in common? They are opinions. Opinions are not facts, so none of these things should be assumed to be valid. I broadened my definition a little for this one. Common assumptions are beliefs and opinions that are expected to be viewed as fact by everyone despite the lack of any factual basis.

In summary, what most people consider to be common sense can be divided into three categories: common sense, common knowledge, and common assumptions. I might as well point out that I also talk about common influence at times. Despite the wording, that is not an offshoot of common sense. Hopefully, I will get around to explaining that one at some point in the next few years.