Common sense is contradictory and only validates truths by their historical spread

Evidence

What was said above does not mean that there are no truths in common sense. It means rather that common sense is an ambiguous, contradictory and multiform concept, and that to refer to common sense as a confirmation of truth is a nonsense. It is possible to state correctly that a certain truth has become part of common sense in order to indicate that it has spread beyond the confines of intellectual groups, but all one is doing in that case is making a historical observation and an assertion of the rationality of history. In this sense, and used with restraint, the argument has a certain validity, precisely because common sense is crudely neophobe and conservative so that to have succeeded in forcing the introduction of a new truth is a proof that the truth in question has exceptional evidence and capacity for expansion. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1513

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines common sense as an ambiguous, contradictory, multiform concept — not a reliable epistemic ground.
• XREF: This is the core ‘common sense’ concept the reader’s Islamophobia toolkit needs — connects to hegemony and later cultural-studies readings of ‘common sense’ racism. — connects to: Appeals to common sense and proportion serve reigning power, not truth — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 84; Historical truth is not validated by success or acceptance — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 784; Common sense is a chaotic aggregate allowing any claim to be confirmed — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1510