Common sense is an uncritically absorbed, fragmentary folklore of philosophy, not a coherent system.

Evidence

A work like the Popular Manual , 526 which is essentially destined for a community of readers who are not professional intellectuals, should have taken as its starting point a critical analysis of the philosophy of common sense, which is the “philosophy of non-philosophers”, or in other words the conception of the world which is uncritically absorbed by the various social and cultural environments in which the moral individuality of the average man is developed. Common sense is not a single unique conception, identical in time and space. It is the “folklore” of philosophy, and, like folklore, it takes countless different forms. Its most fundamental characteristic is that it is a conception which, even in the brain of one individual, is fragmentary, incoherent and inconseqential, in conformity with the social and cultural position of those masses whose philosophy it is. At those times in history when a homogeneous social group is brought into being, there comes into being also, in opposition to common sense, a homogeneous—in other words coherent and systematic— philosophy. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1502

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Core definition of ‘common sense’ as the philosophy of non-philosophers — a fragmentary, incoherent folklore absorbed uncritically from social environments.
• XREF: Directly feeds the Islamophobia toolkit: hegemonic ‘common sense’ about Islam and Muslims is precisely this uncritical, fragmentary absorption from social environments.

Related

• Common sense is the fragmentary, incoherent philosophy of non-philosophers tied to their social class (similarity 0.89)
• Common sense is class-bound folklore that sedimented philosophies leave behind (similarity 0.88)
• Common sense is historical and plural, with religion as only one fragment of it (similarity 0.86)
• Common sense is the uncritical, unconscious worldview common to an epoch (similarity 0.85)
• Common sense is the sediment of past philosophy, not fixed belief (similarity 0.84)
• Philosophy’s history must include mass worldviews and ruling groups, not just philosophers (similarity 0.84)
• Common sense layers sedimented historical beliefs with crude realistic elements, remaining acritical (similarity 0.83)
• Common sense merits only a limited empirical trust, not philosophical authority. (similarity 0.83)
• Common sense is contradictory and only validates truths by their historical spread (similarity 0.83)
• Philosophical elaboration must be performed within the history of philosophy (similarity 0.83)
• Common sense is society’s incoherent assumptions while good sense is practical empirical judgment (similarity 0.82)
• Philosophy becomes historically true by diffusing into the popular mentality. (similarity 0.81)
• Common sense is the sedimented residue of past philosophies, continually transforming. (similarity 0.80)
• Philosophy and common sense differ in degree, not kind (similarity 0.80)
• Dialectical thinking contradicts vulgar common sense’s demand for certainties. (similarity 0.80)