Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
Ugh I'm agreeing with Saintess. 
Common sense and conventional wisdom need to die. These are just ways to avoid thinking for yourself. Use logic, use reason, and most of all, use your fucking brain. Think before you act. Think before you speak. Don't follow in the footsteps of those who came before you just because it's easier. |
*is lost as to the point of this thread or how people are perceiving 'common sense'*
At least... I was raised (and berated often by my father) to 'use common sense', in other words to damn well '
think', when I usually did something he considered stupid or it was in it's very on right, stupid, lol.
Think ahead, always think ahead,
be aware of your actions and your surroundings, it's common sense to know if you walk down a dark alley in London as a single young female, you're putting yourself in danger.
It's common sense to know that if you stick your hand near fire, it'll get hot or you risk getting burned.
And so on...
Well.. since the entire concept of common sense is different for me, I guess I better let the thread go, since I'm not sure what Saintess and others are rallying about.
There's 'general belief' (ie the Earth was round) and at least to me, "common sense" is to make yourself
think before you act and not lead into a lame ass stupid situation that could have been avoided especially for scenarios which have been proven to be potentially or fatally dangerous.
(Ie: It's common sense to look before you cross the road or put your seatbelt on before you drive)
Wonder if anyone sees CS in this way too or was brought up that way, probably a non Western cultural thing at seeing the concept of it as completely different, since to me it equates to:
"Using common knowledge or facts, think before you act to avoid unnecessary danger or stupidity"
Well, makes for an interesting cultural comparison if that is the case
EDIT:
Actually, now that I think about it, the Japanese use the concept of 'common sense' in a very (scarily) similar way to the an African sense that my father often employed...
常識 【じょうしき】 (n) common sense, (P)
常識家 【じょうしきか】 sensible person
常識に欠ける 【じょうしきにかける】 (exp) to lack in common sense
Joushiki ni kakeru, gets you some serious frowns from the natives here, to some degree they also don't appreciate stupidity in the sense of 'bringing down shame or unnecessary embarressment upon yourself or to your family', heh. Also makes me wanna turn into lingusitic geek mode to reearch on the use and belief of 'baka' over here too...
I guess I should ask people here, "
what is the concept of 'common sense' to you" (and the society you live in) before you go off ranting on one about how it shouldn't be used.