Common sense

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The expression common sense ( Greek ϰοινὴ αἴσθησις koiné aísthesis , Latin sensus communis , English common sense , French bon sens ) is ambiguous in German and has three basic meanings: On the one hand, it can be understood in the context of a (philosophical) psychology as a faculty that supports the offers individual senses a reflected unity or as a designation for the inner basis of a common good -oriented thinking, feeling and acting, here it is listed as a counterpart to " common sense ". In medicine, the term is Koine AISTHESIS as Zönästhesie treated.

Common sense in the sense of (philosophical) psychology

In psychology, the German expression common sense is a loan translation about sensus communis from koiné aísthesis .

In (philosophical) psychology the term common sense is used differently.

Two main meanings can be distinguished:

  • "The perception of what is common to the various senses"
  • the inner sense .

Common sense as perception of what is common to the senses (Aristotle)

For Aristotle ( De anima III, 2 p. 425 an 15: tôn koinôn echomen aisthêsin koinên), common sense is the ability to recognize what is common to what is perceived with the external senses . With him it is the inner sense which bundles sensory impressions into a whole. It was initially called “common” because it perceives that which is not only the object of an external sense area, but can only be thought of as common to the external senses, such as movement, number, shape or size.

According to Aristotle, we also perceive that we perceive (aisthanometha hoti horômen kai akouomen lc III 2, 425b 12; De memor. 1; De somn. 2).

Common sense as an inner sense

Avicenna counts common sense among the inner senses as the ability to quae omnia sensu percepta recipit, similar to Suárez in De anima III , 30 u. a.

Thomas Aquinas subsumes under the common sense “all modes of representation that do not fall to the individual senses and the understanding, that is, fantasy, memory, apperception, etc. a. ".

During the Reformation a distinction was made between five inner senses and, in addition to the common sense, the ability to judge, imagination, thinking and memory were placed.

René Descartes (1596–1650) describes common sense as that which in the mind combines the sensory impressions into one overall sensory impression. This could about the so-called spirits ( esprits animaux ) as innate ideas (innate ideas) translate into spiritually conscious both sensations and implement as wills as acts of mind in muscle movement. He accepts hunger and thirst as further inner senses.

"The sensualists Hobbes , Locke and Condillac also retained the concept of the inner sense."

“ In a temporal sense, Wundt designates the general sense that precedes all others and therefore applies to all ensouled beings, in spatial sense the sense that has the most extensive sensory surface accessible to stimuli, the entire outer skin with the adjacent mucous membrane parts of the body cavities and a large number of internal organs, such as the joints, muscles, tendons, bones, etc., in which sensitive nerves spread and which are either continuously or intermittently accessible to stimuli. The general sense, so determined, includes four sensation systems: pressure, cold, warmth and pain sensations ( Wundt , Grundriss der Psychologie § 6, p. 56 ff.). So Wundt puts the general sense in place of the sense of touch or feeling. "

Common sense vs. common sense

"Common sense" is sometimes synonymous with "healthy human" or common sense applied, but nowadays clearly distinguished these terms: Although both the same word origin look back and in the 18th century for. T. were used interchangeably, "common sense" is now mainly used for "common" sense , and "common sense" in the first place for a solidary attitude .

"Common sense" is "by and large about widespread and usually undisputed beliefs ." According to Kant, common sense is "nothing more than the average common sense of a sane person."

The doctrine of common sense is prominent in the Scottish common sense philosophy of the 18th century.

Stoa, Cicero

In the Stoa , the idea of ​​common concepts ( communes conceptiones or notiones communes ) was developed as the strongest criterion of truth . Then there are general statements and terms, such as that of the good or the geometrical laws of Euclid , which can be assumed for all. There is a general moral and discerning instinct behind these terms .

With Cicero the term developed further to the agreement of all ( consensus gentium ), which like the natural laws has general validity for society.

middle Ages

Boethius examined the concept of the common spirit ( communis animis conceptio ) as a universal law, as a statement to which everyone agrees, just as in the medieval philosophy Petrus Abelardus or Thomas Aquinas . Communes conceptiones are principles that are evident and through which the truth is necessarily recognized (summa theologica I / II, q 94, ad. 4c).

Hutcheson and Hume

In English philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment , the meaning of the concept of common sense developed by Francis Hutcheson and David Hume into the generally recognized principles of practical life, which also expressly include a moral sense . Both protagonists of the Enlightenment can be seen as the successors of Shaftesbury , who puts the meaning of wit and humor under the title of Sensus communis and refers to the Roman classics and their humanistic interpreters. The principles of common sense are to be distinguished from the prejudices of the crowd. Hume also believes that common sense develops on the basis of experience and habit.

Common sense in common sense philosophy

In the 18th century, following the Scottish common sense philosophy, which was strongly influenced by Thomas Reid , the importance of a common conviction as the basis of knowledge emerged. In Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man , Thomas Reid developed a theory of common sense against materialistic conceptions, but also against Hume's skepticism , according to which knowledge is based on the intuitive ability to see the truth, while reason merely deals with these insights includes. In particular, he regarded the existence of self-confidence, the existence of an outside world and general, ever-valid laws of nature as irrefutable truths. The function of common sense is to correct , in particular, excessive speculations in metaphysics as well as radical skepticism.

For the representatives of the so-called "Scottish School" (besides Reid especially James Beattie and Joseph Priestley ) common sense referred to common sense , which they made the "source of a priori truth, of morality, of religion". The basis of the entire philosophy should therefore be sufficiently reflected everyday experiences, the use and usefulness of the terms should answer every question about their justification and their origin.

Common sense in Kant

In Immanuel Kant there is both a criticism of the appeal to the common sense in the metaphysical debate, as well as a justification of the sensus communis in his theory of judgment. In the conception of the “Scottish school” of common sense and the German popular philosophy closely related to it , Kant saw only a comfortable evasion of the actual tasks of reason (Immanuel Kant: AA IV, 259–260). Common sense is shown above all in the direct application of judgments in experience, but it cannot be used as a justification for concepts and dogmas as a priori sentences .

Kant, on the other hand, drew a different picture of the common sense in the area of ​​the power of judgment , especially in the case of taste judgments : “Under the sensus communis, one must have the idea of ​​a common sense, i.e. i. understand a faculty of judgment which in its reflection on the way of thinking of each other takes into consideration (a priori) consideration in order, as it were, to adhere to the whole of human reason and thereby escape the illusion that arises from subjective private conditions, which are easily taken to be objective could have a detrimental influence on the judgment. […] One could designate the taste by sensus communis aestheticus , the common understanding by sensus communis logicus ”( –295 ). Here the common sense is regulative and leads to a distinction between objective, subjective-private and subjective-general conditions of judgment. But Kant wants this common sense to be distinguished from the common sense of common sense .

Current positions on common sense

In the 20th century, George Edward Moore was known for his "defense of common sense". Ordinary linguistic usage is of great importance to him. In general, the appeal to common sense among representatives of the Ordinary Language Philosophy is still influential.

In the wake of Kant, the critics of the doctrine of common sense see it as "a strategy of refusing to argue." , from relatives, professional colleagues, etc., outside world reality, etc.). A heuristic criterion should apply: Anyone who represents something as a philosopher, for which, if he lives accordingly, the “man on the street” considers him insane, has an increased burden of argumentation for his opinion. However, this should not be misunderstood in terms of conformism .

Common sense as a sense of the common good

Common sense understood as an ethical attitude is the willingness to work for the common good . "Common sense" was already described in the Rotteck-Welcker state lexicon as the "direction of the mind towards the pursuit of general or common [...] interests". Related terms in this sense are common spirit, the "actual ' civic virtue'" , civic spirit, social , civic Commitment . "Common sense" is sometimes used as the opposite of stubbornness .

In 1998, Thomas Wanninger discussed in Education and Common Sense the feasibility of the common sense and in a historical overview forms of meaning and fields of judgment of the “sensus communis”. He developed a pedagogy of the common sense, because one cannot assume that the common sense is an instinct. Rather, the common sense is subject to formability. In doing so, Wanninger recognizes the opportunity to act according to the principles of common sense to everyone who tries to leave out disturbing things (egoism, tendency to prejudice ...). For Wanninger, the pedagogue's question is not what is to be done, but what is to be kept conscious. Basically, this is a negative upbringing ( negare , Latin to take away).

Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde underlined that the free basic order needs a unifying ethos, a kind of “common sense” .

literature

  • Gadamer, Hans-Georg: Truth and Method. Basics of a philosophical hermeneutics , Tübingen 1960.
  • Körver, Helga: Common Sense. The development of an English keyword and its meaning for the English intellectual history, primarily during the period of classicism and romanticism , Bonn 1967.
  • Albersmeyer-Bingen, Helga: Common Sense. A contribution to the sociology of knowledge , Berlin 1986.
  • Thomas Wanninger: Education and common sense. A contribution to the pedagogy of judgment from the philosophy of the “sensus communis”. Bayreuth, Univ. Diss., 1999
  • Rescher, Nicholas: Common-sense. A new look at an old philosophical tradition , Milwaukee 2005.
  • Wolfgang Fänderl (Ed.): Participation beyond talking. Community spirit workshop: materials for developing networks. (2nd edition) Gütersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung , 2006.
  • Ledwig, Marion: Common Sense. Its History, Method, and Applicability , New York 2007.
  • Nehring, Robert: Critique of Common Sense: Common sense, reflective judgment and common sense - the sensus communis in Kant , Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eisler, Rudolf: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms , Volume 1. Berlin 1904: Common sense. in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20001789295 ; different Art. sensus communis , in: Friedrich Kirchner : Dictionary of basic philosophical terms , 1907, where the two meanings are not distinguished
  2. ↑ Eisler, Rudolf: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms , Volume 1. Berlin 1904: Common sense. in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20001789295
  3. ↑ a b Art. Sensus communis , in: Friedrich Kirchner : Dictionary of basic philosophical concepts , 1907
  4. ↑ Regenbogen / Meyer (Ed.): Dictionary of philosophical terms. Meiner, Hamburg 2005: Community spirit.
  5. ↑ Eisler, Rudolf: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms , Volume 1. Berlin 1904: Common sense. in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20001789295
  6. ↑ Eisler, Rudolf: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms, Volume 1. Berlin 1904: Common sense. in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20001789295 - referring to STÖCKL, II, 37.
  7. ^ Eisler, Rudolf: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms , Volume 1, Berlin 1904: Common sense. in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20001789295
  8. ↑ Melanchthon: liber de anima , Vitemb. 1540, fol. 174 after Kirchner: sensus communis , in: Friedrich Kirchner : Dictionary of basic philosophical terms, Berlin 1907.
  9. ↑ Descartes, Princ. phil. IV, 90 according to article sensus communis , in: Friedrich Kirchner : Dictionary of basic philosophical terms , 1907.
  10. ↑ Art. Sensus communis , in: Friedrich Kirchner : Dictionary of basic philosophical concepts , 1907.
  11. ↑ Art. Sensus communis , in: Friedrich Kirchner : Dictionary of basic philosophical concepts , 1907.
  12. ↑ John R. Searle : Spirit, Language and Society. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 2004, p. 21
  13. ^ So Ferber, Rafael: Philosophical Basic Concepts. - 6th edition - Beck: Munich 1999, p. 18 (without proof)
  14. ^ Shaftesbury: Characteristics . Treatise II. See in particular Part III, Sect. I.
  15. ↑ Gadamer, Hans-Georg : Truth and Method. Basic features of a philosophical hermeneutics . Collected works, JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1990, Hermeneutics I, Volume I, ISBN 3-16-145616-5 ; Page 29 f.
  16. ↑ So Eisler, Rudolf: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms. Volume 1. Berlin 1904: Community spirit. in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20001789295
  17. ↑ Immanuel Kant, Collected Writings. Ed .: Vol. 1-22 Prussian Academy of Sciences, Vol. 23 German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, from Vol. 24 Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Berlin 1900ff., AA IV, 259-260 .
  18. ↑ Immanuel Kant, Collected Writings. Ed .: Vol. 1-22 Prussian Academy of Sciences, Vol. 23 German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, from Vol. 24 Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Berlin 1900ff., AA V, 293-295 .
  19. ↑ Hügli / Lübcke (eds.): Philosophielexikon. - 5th edition. - Rowohlt, Reinbek 2003: common sense.
  20. ↑ So z. B. Gessmann, Martin (ed.): Philosophical dictionary. - 23rd edition. - Kröner, Stuttgart 2009: Common sense.
  21. ↑ Ferber, Rafael: Philosophical Basic Concepts. - 6th edition - Beck: Munich 1999, p. 19
  22. ^ Karl von Rotteck , Carl Theodor Welcker (ed.): Das Staats-Lexikon. Encyclopedia of all political sciences for all classes. Volume 6. 3rd edition, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1862, p. 284 ( digitized version ).
  23. ↑ a b c So Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon. Volume 7. 6th edition, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1907, p. 537, in: http://www.zeno.org/nid/20006667104
  24. ↑ Thomas Wanninger: Education and common sense. A contribution to the pedagogy of judgment from the philosophy of the “sensus communis”. Dissertation, cultural studies, University of Bayreuth, 1998 (Diplomica Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, ISBN 3-8386-1888-2 )
  25. ↑ Böckenförde, Freedom is contagious, Frankfurter Rundschau of November 2, 2010, p. 32: “Conceived by the state, the free basic order needs a unifying ethos, a kind of“ common sense ”among those who live in this state. The question then is: where does this ethos come from, which the state can neither enforce nor enforce sovereignly? One can say: first of all, about the culture we live ”. Quoted from: Julian Rössler, Political Freedom in Völkerrecht: A representation of the pluralistic understanding of democracy in the universal protection of human rights based on the scope and limits of party freedom , Mohr Siebeck, 2016, ISBN 978-3-16-154634-1 . P. 161 .