Local Knowlege blog-common sense

The title suggests that common sense should be understood as a cultural system. Common sense is common understanding among a people in a particular culture, and different cultures have different notions of common sense. (That's not to say there aren't any universal common sense notions shared by these different groups....)

The author quotes Wittgenstein's clever and interesting comparison between language and city: ... Ask yourself whether our language is complete--whether it was complete before the symbolism of chemistry or the notion of calculus was annexed, for these are, so to speak, the suburbs of our language." W seems to be saying that our language has not always been as developed as it is now--just as suburbs didn't exist till the development of cars, dirt & paved roads, railways, and express highways, thus making it possible for people to move away or out of crowded urban areas to improve their lives.

Language of chemistry and calculus is likened to the suburbs. They represent abstract thought. His discriptive analogy expands further: Our language can be seen as an old city: a maze of little streets and squares, old and new houses." These little streets and squares represent our old language while "straight streets and uniform houses" represent modern/comtemporary language. "Houses with addition from various periods" symbolize new language-- words, phrases, new ways of talking, and possibly spoken English with new accents & dialects.

Geetz's piece on common sense is heavy, and could be heavier going for those who don't have at least minimal knowledge of these thinkers' systems of thought. I had to read it twice, and wouldn't hurt to read again either.