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Are you born with common sense or is it a learned trait?

Common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden. Do you learn common sense or are those whom have it gifted? Sometimes it seems more like a curse for those whom have common sense. We have to deal with those that don't.

A guy I know, invited me over to his room, and didn't even have the courtesy to tell me he was sick. He then made a "god" comment, I interjected and said I don't believe in god. He then said I was lost. I left right then. The next day (yesterday) I woke up with sore throat. Today, I went to the doctors and got some medicine prescribed. Mucinex and saline spray. I later asked this guy if he was sick. I asked him to be honest. He replied with, "Yeah."

Obviously people without common sense are never fun to hang around or talk to. Would they be considered ignorant then?

Sarahroo29 8 Jan 17
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17 comments

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6

Everyone is ignorant of many things. It is clear to me that I cannot learn or know everything nor is there a need to do so.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955),

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Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things that are shared by nearly all people and can reasonably be expected of nearly all people without the need for debate.

Betty Level 8 Jan 17, 2018

@TheMiddleWay

It's common sense that proof outweighs opinion. It's common sense that a pound of feathers and a pound of rocks will fall at the same speed. It's common sense that fear and ignorance can be overcome with education.
If there was never debate over religion then there would only be "One Religion". Debate fractured religion. Just the Christian religion alone has more than 4000 sects and countless cults based on differing interpretations.

@TheMiddleWay

It is common sense that where there are opportunities there are opportunists. Where there is great need, fear, and ignorance there are opportunists ready to fulfill those needs in anticipation of great returns.

The very definition of common sense allows for progress, new information, discoveries, and growth etc. Eg.- It was once common to believe the sun revolved around the earth. It was once believed that the earth was flat. These and many others were disproved and the new information is widely accepted as common sense.

The feathers and the rocks. Of course, common sense is not the name. It is the widely accepted belief that it is true. As a teacher, you should know the difference.

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Everyone has a different definition of common sense and nobody believes they lack it.

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Common sense is kind of a misnomer. It assumes everyone has the exact same life experiences and learns the same lessons from those experiences. We all know those two things are an impossibly.

3

He is self absorbed-self centered.

Just ignorant. He said, "I thought he left the window open." Which makes no sense whatsoever. He's delusional. I fell for his being nice. He said I'm lost without god.

2

I think common sense is something we learn or we don't, in the natural world, those animals that don't learn it become lunch.

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I think it depends on DNA and environment. If you make a mistake and learn from that error it is a building block for common sense. However keep making the same mistake with no improvements you could have missed the elevator to the common sense floor.

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A key ingredient IMO for real common sense is curiosity. Without it, you have limited reasoning.

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Based on my everyday interactions with other human being, most are neither born with it nor develop it.

Jnei Level 8 Jan 17, 2018

Most. Some are also politicians.

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I think we’re born with common sense. Some people just seem to have more of it than others. I also think we’re born atheist. It’s the indoctrination that makes people religious.

I agree.

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Well i have noticed around were i live common sense ain't so common anymore!! computers don't teach a touch of it!

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I have a very deep mistrust of 'common sense'. Too often people use it as a reason for doing something that releases them from having to consider the matter seriously. Although I think common sense is not always without merit, it always rings alarm bells with me when I hear the phrase.

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Think you either have it or not. So born with it. My view and I am sticking to it.

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Common sense is learned. We all develop strategies for dealing with the outside world. Some people develop more effective strategies for pattern recognition and problem solving. Common sense is really little more than quickly diagnosing the situation and acting appropriately.

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a bit of both i think

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Common sense is cultural, and learned from the culture you live in. Taking some ideas from below, it’s knowledge expected to be well understood, but not by humanity as a whole. Here it’s common sense to poop in a toilet, but it’s not uncommon for foreigners who are used to the common sense of using a squatting toilet, and will often stand on the seat and leave a surprise, we think they lack common sense, but they don’t.

I’d also like to add that it’s absurd to think common sense is somthing your born with. If you raise a human in a cage with no guidelines, I don’t care what bloodline they are from, they won’t have common sense as it’s known to us in specific cultures.

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In my experience, it is learned. Children really do learn what they live. Those children become adults, and the cycle continues. In my opinion, common sense does not discriminate and is often found to be the "common" denominator throughout communities everywhere.

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