Sense, Common. The word sense, when not denoting a single sense in itself, but its result as disclosing something external, seems nearly synonymous with perception. By common sense the schoolmen meant the apperception produced by the combined action of different senses. Sight, hearing, and touch continually result in one impression of the object before us. This is the common sense.
In the philosophy of Reid and his followers common sense has a force different from this. Here it denotes the primary beliefs which are common to all men, and which, incapable of proof themselves, are the bases of all proof. This is by no means identical with the conversational use of the term, whereby it denotes the average judgment of men on ordinary matters, the want of which makes a man act weakly and absurdly.
Strange to say, however, no less a philosopher than Sir James Mackintosh confounds the two, and blames Reid for adopting the term common sense as the base of his philosophy.
