[repr. Gr. κοινὴ αἴσθησις, L. sensus commūnis, F. sens commun.]
† 1. An ‘internal’ sense which was regarded as the common bond or center of the five senses, in which the various impressions received were reduced to the unity of a common consciousness. Obs.
[Cf. 1398–1509. common wit s.v. COMMON a. 21.]
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., I. ii. 3. They [eyes] were ordeyned of nature in the former part [of the head] … that they might carye visible thinges to ye commune sens.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 123. Which common sense, is a power or facultie of the sensitiue soule … and is therefore called common, because it receiueth commonly the formes or images which the exteriour senses present vnto it, and hath power to distinguish the one from the other.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. vii. Inner Senses are three in number, so called, because they be within the brain-pan, as Common Sense, Phantasie, Memory…. This Common sense is the Judge or Moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all differences of objects. Ibid., III. xii. The external senses and the common sense considered together are like a circle with five lines drawn from the circumference to the centre.
1842. Sir W. Hamilton, in Reid’s Wks. (1872), II. 756/2, note. Common Sense (κοινὴ αἴσθησις) was employed by Aristotle to denote the faculty in which the various reports of the several senses are reduced to the unity of a common apperception.
fig. c. 1645. Howell, Lett., v. (1650), 174. Cabbage, turnips, artichocks, potatoes, and dates, are her five senses, and pepper the common sense.
2. The endowment of natural intelligence possessed by rational beings; ordinary, normal or average understanding; the plain wisdom which is every man’s inheritance. (This is ‘common sense’ at its minimum, without which a man is foolish or insane.) † Formerly also in pl., in phr. Besides his common senses: out of his senses or wits, ‘beside himself.’
1535. Joye, Apol. Tindale (Arb.), 36. I am suer T[indale] is not so farre besydis his comon sencis as to saye the dead bodye hereth cristis voyce.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 13. Vnlesse he be voide of all common sense and natural wit of man.
1602. T. Fitzherb., Apol., 20 a. I referre me to the iudgement of any man that hath but common sence.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., I. iii. § 4. He would be thought void of common sense who asked on the one side, or on the other side went to give a reason, why it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 70, ¶ 2. A Reader of plain common Sense, who would neither relish nor comprehend an Epigram of Martial.
1744. Harris, Three Treat., Wks. (1841), 46, note. Common sense … a sense common to all, except lunatics and ideots.
1799. Mackintosh, Study Law Nature, Wks. 1846, I. 363. Whoever thoroughly understands such a science, must be able to teach it plainly to all men of common sense.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 404. Common sense will not teach us metaphysics any more than mathematics.
b. More emphatically: Good sound practical sense; combined tact and readiness in dealing with the every-day affairs of life; general sagacity.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xx. 100. There is not (said a shrewd wag) a more uncommon thing in the world than common sense … By common sense we usually and justly understand the faculty to discern one thing from another, and the ordinary ability to keep ourselves from being imposed upon by gross contradictions, palpable inconsistencies, and unmask’d imposture. By a man of common sense we mean one who knows, as we say, chalk from cheese.
1775. Priestley, Exam. Reid, 127. Common sense … in common acceptation … has long been appropriated … to that capacity for judging of common things that persons of middling capacities are capable of.
1852. Tennyson, Ode Death Wellington, iv. Rich in saving common-sense.
1888. Wormall, in Times, 16 Jan., 8/1. The general demand was for intelligence, sagacity, soundness of judgment, clearness of perception, and that sanity of thinking called common sense.
† c. Ordinary or untutored perception. Obs.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 57. To know … Things hid and bard from common sense … is studies god-like recompence.
d. As a quality of things said or done (= ‘something accordant to or approved by common sense’).
1803. Mackintosh, Def. Peltier, Wks. 1846, III. 270. I ask you again, Gentlemen, is this common sense?
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., iii. (1878), 34. To him it was just common sense, and common sense only.
1884. G. Denman, in Law Rep., 29 Chanc. Div. 467. It is only common sense that … you should look at the whole of the document together.
3. The general sense, feeling, or judgment of mankind, or of a community.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. x. 2. That all the cares and evill which they meet May … seeme gainst common sence to them most sweet.
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 390. These are to be received by the common sense of a Nation, as Gods warning pieces.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, i. (1723), 1. The common Sense of mankind.
1783. Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., III. Wks. 1871, I. 329. I am content, Hylas, to appeal to the common sense of the world for the truth of my notion.
1872. Grote, Aristotle, II. App. ii. 285. What Aristotle … defines as matters of common opinion and belief includes all that is usually meant, and properly meant, by Common Sense—what is believed by all men or by most men.
1874. Sidgwick, Meth. Ethics, III. xi. § 6. 333. The promise which the Common Sense of mankind recognises as binding.
4. Philos. The faculty of primary truths; ‘the complement of those cognitions or convictions which we receive from nature; which all men therefore possess in common; and by which they test the truth of knowledge, and the morality of actions’ (Hamilton, Reid’s Wks., II. 756).
Philosophy of Common Sense: that philosophy which accepts as the ultimate criterion of truth the primary cognitions or beliefs of mankind; e.g., in the theory of perception, the universal belief in the existence of a material world. Applied to the Scotch school which arose in the 18th c. in opposition to the views of Berkeley and Hume.
[c. 1705. Berkeley, Commonpl. Bk., Wks. IV. 455. Mem. To be eternally banishing Metaphisics, etc., and recalling men to Common Sense.]
1758. Price, Rev. Quest. Morals (ed. 2), 81. Common sense, the faculty of self-evident truths.
1764. Reid (title), An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense.
1770. Beattie, Ess. Truth, in Ann. Reg. (1772), 253. Common Sense hath, in modern times, been used by philosophers, both French and British, to signify that power of the mind which perceives truth, or commands belief, not by progressive argumentation, but by an instantaneous, instinctive, and irresistible impulse; derived neither from education nor from habit, but from nature.
1776. Campbell, Philos. Rhet. (1801), I. I. ii. 99. To maintain propositions the reverse of the primary truths of common sense, doth not imply a contradiction, it only implies insanity.
1842. Sir W. Hamilton, in Reid’s Wks., II. 742. On the Philosophy of Common Sense; or our primary beliefs considered as the ultimate criterion of truth.
1871. Fraser, in Berkeley’s Wks., I. 183. The universal concurrent assent of mankind may be thought by some an invincible argument in behalf of Matter. (Note, Commonly called the argument from Common Sense.)
1874. Sidgwick, Meth. Ethics, p. xi. Dogmatic Intuitionism, in which the general rules of Common Sense are accepted as axiomatic.
5. attrib. (the two words being always hyphened).
1854. E. Forbes, Lit. Papers, i. 43. Common-sense views are the last to take hold on men’s minds.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 93. The air was thick with common-sense objections to Christianity, as it was with common-sense ideas as to the way in which we come to have ideas.
1874. Sidgwick, Meth. Ethics, I. vi. § 3. 70. Egoism and Utilitarianism may fairly be regarded as extremes between which the Common-Sense morality is a kind of media via.
Hence Common-sensed a., possessing common sense. Common-sensely adv., in a common sense manner. Common-sense-o-dox a. nonce-wd. on type of orthodox. Common-sensible, -bly, -sensical a., possessing, or characterized by, common sense; whence Common-sensically adv. (All more or less nonce-words.)
1875. M. G. Pearse, Dan. Quorm, Ser. I. (1879), 26. Pithy, plain, *common-sensed.
1884. J. Parker, Apost. Life, III. 66. Common-sensed and real-hearted men.
1878. Grosart, in H. More’s Poems, Introd. 36/2. Thus *common-sensely does he put the matter.
1866. Reade, G. Gaunt, I. 207. He did not think it … *common-sense-o-dox to turn his back upon their dinner.
1851. Hawthorne, Snow Image (1879), 30. This highly benevolent and *common-sensible individual.
1875. Helps, Soc. Press., xxv. 382. Common-sensible conclusions.
1890. Univ. Rev., 15 July, 455. He chattered away … *commonsensibly enough.
R. H. Bell, Woman from Bondage to Freedom, 152. A commonsensibly arranged co-operation between men and women should bring about equal rights under the law, equal opportunities, equal privileges, equal freedom of choice in marriage and divorce, equal moral and civic duties in all affairs that equally concern both sexes.
1860. [Mrs. M. C. Harris], Rutledge, xi. 155. She gave me a plain *commonsensical statement of affairs.
1887. R. Cleland, True to a Type, I. 259. He was matter-of-fact and common-sensical to a degree.
1878. Fraser’s Mag., XVII. 802. There are some things fit to be stated oratorically, some poetically … some humorously, some *commonsensically.
