By Sidney S. Stark
A writer friend of mine was lamenting the fact that “today we make decisions based on statistical analysis rather than experience, or what used to be called common sense.” There would certainly seem to be plenty of proof backing that up. I’m not sure if it’s the shortening of our attention span that makes that necessary or the acceleration of the pace of our living.
The relatively recent lack of popularity in the subjects of history and the arts as educational necessities might carry some of the responsibility for this trend. Being in too much of a hurry to learn from the past necessitates the use of mathematical models instead of intuition for support. That same friend suggested that “heroes of the past learned from experience and amassed a life hilosophy that helped them with the most complex challenges of their day. The same would be true for us today if we could rise above statistical probability and media babble to listen to our own intuition.” But is that really true? Do we have problems of such complexity today that only numbers can make sense of them as so many believe?
It would seem that numbers sense and common sense are very different things. In his new book The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, David Brooks attacks this dilemma head on and backs up his work with a barrage of scientific research. It’s a completely engaging treatise even with all that research included and I recommend it highly. There are many other important topics he tackles as you might assume from his title with equal skill. A video of his interview about the book for NPR’s All Things Considered is on the link above. In it he says that
“research today reminds us of the importance of emotion over pure reason.” How could that be? That’s completely opposite from the accepted knowledge of our day. But maybe that’s exactly the problem. Our knowledge doesn’t go back far enough; it’s only of our day.
The relevance of my memoir Gifted! lies specifically in the fact that my grandmother, like any great mentor, provided a bridge from her world to mine. She stressed the importance of the continuum of knowledge that had been built up since the beginning of civilization and that I too was a part of it. I remember once being discouraged by the thought that I could never have the time and energy to gain all that knowledge. After all, how many hours can a person spend in the library if they also need to eat and sleep? She assured me that the wisdom of the ages was a part of my own mind already. I didn’t need to go look anything up. All I had to do was listen to my intuition and be sensitive to what it told me. That was how I could get through my own trials, she assured me, just as others had done for centuries before me.
David Brooks agrees and also tells us in The Human Animal that “sensitivity to emotions is necessary to live well and learn.” This then begins to sound like feeling and intuition. With a little research one finds that intuition, feeling, instinct, insight, experience, knowledge, emotion and even transcendentalism all dwell together in the same place and within each other. And then it becomes obvious that the only useful definition for ‘common sense’ is ‘universal wisdom’. Don’t take my word for any of this. Haul out the dictionary yourself and start to play with the words.
So common sense must come from an appreciation for the historical continuum. My writer friend was right that the heroes of the past developed a life philosophy for their own survival as well as for ours, as long as we pay attention to what they have to tell us. David Brooks says that the “spiritual states arise and dance from soul to soul. It collects the wisdom of the ages. It contains the soul of the species.” So that’s what common sense must be: “the soul of the species.” And it would seem imperative that we put all that accumulated knowledge to work for us. It’s just common sense.
Question @You: Is common sense up to dealing with the complex problems of our day? Let us know what you think.