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Originally Posted by gal
Common sense to me is what a majority people in a geographical or social group percieve as sensible. I'd say 90% of the americans I've met share my perception of sensibility, but that is of course a biased group. I think part of the the problem in US with regard to loony lawsuits is that the US is a diverse nation where it's harder to define common sense. Also the deeply founded american idea of personal independence and freedom inherently recognizes that others may have very different personal beliefs.
Anyway, it's pretty easy to mention examples of common sense within a group of people. For instance for the western world: - Don't jump in front of moving cars
- Eating 10 BigMacs a day is unhealthy
- Don't use the hair dryer in the bath tub
- An 8-ball is not a pregnancy test
- For sun lotion to work, you have to apply it to the skin
- Loud farting at dinner parties is considered rude
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I see what you're saying. I guess my point is that lacking common sense only means that someone doesn't share the perspective of the majority. This is often not a bad thing. I don't think having common sense is inherently valuable. There are a great many things which the majority has absolutely no clue about. If you asked the average person what the most common sense way to find a solution to a seperable first order differential equation most would just look at you like you were speaking french. What is common sense to someone taking a diff eq class is not common sense to the average american, just as what might be common sense to a bunch of parents in washington might not be common sense to a bunch of random strangers on the internet.