Appeal To Common Sense

If more people just used common sense... the world would be a better place. Or at least that's what most people think, myself included on many occasions. But, common sense is actually one of the most unreliable methods of judging the truth or validity of any given problem or explanation.

_{Image by geralt - source: Pixabay}

In philosophy, the "appeal to common sense" is also called the "common sense fallacy"; it relies on a vague notion of "obviousness", something that "speaks for itself", or "what's there for all to see". As you may have noticed, none of these are supported by actual reasoning, let alone evidence. Creationists argue from common sense when they observe that the world and nature appear to be designed, and therefore conclude that there must have been a designer, a creator. Common sense tells us the earth is flat, as we see ourselves walking on a flat plane, and see the Sun, Moon and stars revolving around us; common sense also tells us we're the center of the universe, a belief we've held for centuries, and unfortunately some still do. Einsteins theories of relativity were initially resisted, because they defied common sense...

Well... reality is under no obligation to behave in a way that conforms to our intuition. It's not common sense to think that a feather and a brick fall to the earth at the same speed under the force of gravity, but it is the reality.

Einstein's theories of relativity were initially resisted, even by the scientific community, because they defied common sense. They seemed to belong more in the realm of science fiction than reality, until they were later verified by scientific observations. Our modern Global Positioning System (GPS) now uses Einstein's relativity theories. This initial resistance may have led Einstein to later say that "Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen".
_{source: The Logical Place}

The appeal to common sense increases in weight when the suggested explanation supports previously held convictions, as illustrated by Einstein's words, and is often used in debates. The danger lies in thinking that something is "common sense", when people with other previously built convictions might not think it's common sense at all. For me it's common sense to think that the much debated identity politics are just another way for the plutocracy to "divide and rule", when for people further over on the right side of the political spectrum often believe it's common sense to think these identity politics are an invention of the left, the side traditionally fighting the marginalized groups, the underdogs.

It's quite difficult for average people like myself to avoid all logical fallacies; there are quite a lot of them and are often very subtle, so I make those myself quite often, I'm sure. Common sense is not always wrong, it's just never a good argument for the veracity of a statement. I hope that this helps in future discussions, and also that you may forgive me when I make the occasional appeal to common sense; it's one of the easier logical fallacies to commit...

_{Appeal to Common Sense}

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