What is common sense
Common sense is the first form of knowledge practiced by man, from the moment he started to live in groups. It is a characteristic common to human societies and only to this species, which does not depend only on its instinct to survive.
This knowledge is manifested through our personal and collective experience and the beliefs that arise from this collective coexistence; through our daily lives, we establish certain perceptions that appear to be true and we start to incorporate them as if they were absolute truths.
The importance of common sense
Common sense is formed by repeating tasks on a daily basis. The repetitions end up becoming routines, which make the individual feel safe knowing how to behave and act in the same environment.
Routine, the first step towards internalizing information about the world, is essential for you to get through the day, allowing you to perform a large number of tasks without spending considerable time, not least because they become so natural that you seem to have always known how to do them. them. This feeling gives a certain naturalness to everyday tasks, as if they were part of the individual since birth.
This type of knowledge also guarantees the survival of men, since it allows the transmission of knowledge from generation to generation, through speech and, later, through writing.
The dangers of common sense
It is also important to understand that this form of routine knowledge is not accurate and has a large number of dangers. After all, the repetition of daily life can cause the mistaken feeling that changes do not exist and that the immediate reality in which one lives is the only possible one.
The belief that this finished reality is unique can create obstacles to coexistence. This is the case of stereotype, that is, the simplistic view that is made of other social beings and events, which can generate prejudice and exclusion.
Common sense and science
Common sense corresponds to the first form of understanding that man has of the world and the reality around him, however, as it is a form of disorganized, inaccurate knowledge and anchored in social traditions, it does not tend to seek a truth that is scientifically proven , which is why Sociology must dedicate itself to overcoming it in search of a scientific view of social reality.
Therefore, it is necessary to change our behavior in the face of the reality that surrounds us, adopting a new perspective, more critical and demystifying this reality, which corresponds to what sociologists call strangeness, that is, to look for a solution that does not result from our first ones. impressions, but of a scientific and rational investigation of the events in question.
In this sense, it is important that scientific discourse seeks to unmask other forms of knowledge incorporated into social daily life. The validation of scientific discourse involves the identification and unmasking of knowledge from common sense, from our daily lives, devoid of the scientific rigor that would confirm the veracity of its conclusions.
