What is Commonsense?

The #1 question I get is this one. What really is it?

The best way to answer is to show you. You could also read Kant or Heidegger and think of the opposite of that while still retaining wisdom.

Let's talk about why some people are interesting and some are not. Some simply have nothing to say - and this is boring. More people have plenty to say, but often it is pure factual regurgitation or it is meaningless. What are we really saying when we say people are boring?

We are saying they lack wisdom.

Some people naturally say things that are full of what we call wisdom. This can easily be confused with people that have a lot of rote knowledge, like say a professional on his topic (a doctor), and we can listen if we need something but otherwise it becomes boring. We often say, "Don't talk shop at home." We are always bored with pure rote information unless it has immediate relevance to a problem. It is the same reason we don't want to hear a doctor talk in his language when we aren't sick.

The problem is that we don't always know that we are bored.

There's always that one person out of a thousand that on all kinds of topics seems to have very interesting things to say. You could listen for hours. When people get around this person, they start asking more questions. It is as if his knowledge about life has the same relevance as a professional's rote knowledge (about medicine, etc). But life is universal for us and it does not require a pressing problem to engender curiosity. Of course, it helps to be in the midst of an existential dilemma (real Existentialism) and then a person who has wisdom is that much more interesting.

These people we say, when we really think about it, are full of wisdom. Their information - very different from pure facts - makes us curious and makes us learn. This learning is different from memorization and it effects a broader range of curiosities in our life.

Try an experiment: talk to people and ask yourself when they are actually displaying wisdom. It is a challenge. Nobody does it all the time. Nobody lacks it completely. Listening to people without wisdom is not equal to listening to ones with wisdom and you shouldn't waste your time missing this distinction.

We can say then if we admit this clarification that the world today lacks wisdom. No wonder socializing sucks and people who think all you need is "fun" are deep-down the most miserable people. Perhaps the antipathy for those who speak wisdom at the wrong time or in a challenging way can be those most despised. Just ask Socrates.

I hope you can see, separate from the idea about wisdom, that this writing is very different from classic philosophical writing. Decide for yourself why it is different and, more importantly if it is more or less valuable.