COMMON SENSE IN PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

What is Common sense?

Is common sense is really “common to all

people”?

Does common sense varies in

every individual?

Is common sense

taught in school?

Common Sense

Philosophical Scientific

Modern Management Theory

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVEPLATO. he distance philosophers from the common

people, and to differentiate true scientific knowledge (epistêmê) from the misguided and murky opinion (doxa) of the multitude

At the same time, however, he advanced the notion that knowledge of absolute truths is in some sense innate, although requiring dialectical reasoning to be brought to light – there is thus an intuitive aspect to knowing.

“Intuitive aspect to knowing” can be “Common Sense”

Herbert of Cherbury & Rene Descartes – a new traditon of philosophical thinking emerged in the early modern period that began to assess the role played by “first principles” of common sense in our intellectual and social life.

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVEAristotle Science for Aristotle was an activity of moving

from the “givens” of sense of experience, through inductive observations of particulars, to the general causal connections that bind everything together into one system of nature.

Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Newton and BaconModern science was founded in part on

a distrust of ordinary sense experience and “appearances” in favor of corpuscular, idealized and mathematical truths. The world of everyday exp. needed to be re examined, tested, transcended, put on the rack and reduced to invisible forces and minute particles in order to be understood.

Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Hume An entirely mechanistic view of human nature (we

are simply machines that can think) and the world (everything is composed of matter in motion) began to be developed, while our ability to know that world with any kind of intuitive certainty was also under attack by the rising current of modern skepticism.

JOHN LOCKEArgue that there are no innate moral rules or principles, since customs varied widely among people and “have remorse in one place for doing or omitting that which other,. in other place. Locke emphasize on the diversity of moral beliefs, and his efforts to disprove the existence of innate moral ideas or principles implanted by God

Thomas Reid – 1770-96A Scottish Philosopher

“All reasoning must be grounded on first principles. This holds in moral reasoning, as in all other kinds. There must be therefore be in morals, as in all other sciences, first or self evident principles, on which all moral reasoning is grounded, an on which it ultimately rests. ”

Reid carefully investigated the five senses, concluding that in their basic functions they give to the world to us.

According to Thomas Reid:“Natural Signs”- it is

filled and we are equipped by nature to

Read initially “”Original

Perceptions”-existence and primary qualities of

bodies

“Acquired Perceptions”- laws of

nature

“Principles of Common Sense”- original and natural

perception

Natural Language- gestures and facial expressions

CAUSALITY- a crucial principle, the intuitive conviction that observed events are often casually connected.

“Inductive principle”- science and common

life,.

“Moral principles”- “moral sense, moral intuitions”. The sense of right and wrong in conduct personal intention, responsibility, duty, honesty, justice and moral obligation.

COMMON SENSE AND MANAGEMENT THEORY

CHESTER BARNARD (1938)

Rationality

Intuition

Good Managerial

Decision

Making

Rationality is the habit of acting by reason, which means in accordance with the facts of reality. 

Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference (act or process of deriving logical conclusions) and/or the use of reason.

Manager without intuition

Manager without rationality

Manager with both rationality and Intuition

SIMON (1987)

Argued that managers draw on

both analysis and intuition in

responding quickly to problems

and situations: ―It is a fallacy to

contrast analytic’ and intuitive’

styles of management.

SIMON (1987)

Managerial Decision Making

In order to respond quickly to circumstances, managers need to cultivate intuition and judgment over many years of training and experience.

BENNETT (1998)

He notes that there is widespread

agreement among researchers that

both analytical and intuitive

processing are necessary components

of the decision-making process, and

that intuitive leaps are often part of a

successful decision.

PATTON (2003)

similarly advocates a balance between intuition and logic in decision-making, intuition understood as pattern recognition based on experience and learning that is especially useful in complex situations that require instantaneous actions or behaviors.

This understanding of intuition is very close to what normally gets referred to in the management literature as common sense, and the two are at times explicitly linked

NITECKI (1987)

Similarly sees common sense as a potential hindrance to sound managerial thinking and problem-solving.

He conflates (combine) the two basic understandings of common sense (intuitive principles of mind vs. common understandings), and critiques it for being the fount (source) of conventional wisdom and the status quo (Current situation).

Common Sense

Alone

Managers fails because:1. Incorrectly identifying solutions to

problems2. Unable to effectively plan organize.

Shows up as getting bogged down with details so that overall planning or organizing isn’t done

3. Inflexibility. Will not listen to others. Is completely self-centered

4. Failing to think in terms of the entire organizational situation. Doesn’t see the bigger picture. Shows up as being unwilling to cooperate with other departments or managers.

if we understand common sense as basic truths

or principles intuitively perceived by the mind

(whether ingrained via experience or implanted

by nature), there continues to be much interest

in it as an important element in management

theory, practice, and organizational learning

once we clarify just what we mean by common

sense, and deepen our understanding of its

intuitive and ―hard-wired‖ dimensions, it

becomes easier to assess both the positive role

and limitations of common sense in managerial

decision-making.

Prepared by: Ambos, Joge christipher Lapeña, Eleanor d. Rivera, Ariel Reginald S. Sadangsal, Kristine Joy V

References: Common Sense in Philosophical and

Scientific Perspectivehttp://www.cnu.edu/leadershipstudies/faculty/Redekop_Common_Sense_Author_Preprint.pdf.