Making common sense : on the construction of the obvious from antiquity to AI / Michael North.

Author/creator North, Michael, 1951- author.
Format Book
PublicationStanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2026]
Description251 pages ; 23 cm
Subjects
Common sense--History.
Common sense in literature.

Contents Between the senses and sense : the common sense from Aristotle to Plotinus -- Common wisdom : proverbs, fables, and the sensus communis -- From inner sense to common belief : Arendt, Augustine, Descartes -- Eighteenth century common sense : common notions or empirical good sense? -- Common sense and sensibility : Mill, Sidgwick and "moral anarchy" in the nineteenth century -- Moore's hand : modern doubt and common sense certainty -- Common sense by the numbers : game theory and artificial intelligence.
Abstract "Common sense is supposed to be so obvious it can go without saying. And yet, it has been hard to pin down, partly because its contents are vague and inconsistent, and partly because it has always been difficult to say what kind of sense common sense is. Making Common Sense is an historical account of attempts, from antiquity to the present, to solve this puzzle. The ambiguity began centuries ago with the merger of the common sense, the sensorium commune, a kind of sixth sense responsible for coordinating the other five, with the sensus communis, a collection of implicit social habits and beliefs. Ever since, common sense, as a power both practical and thoughtful, has promised to split the difference between sensation and reason, the body and the mind, and between individuals and their society. As challenges from medical science and skeptical philosophy accumulated, though, common sense assumed a number of different forms in response. It has been a physical organ, a mental faculty, a body of knowledge, a system of axioms, an ethical principle, and a synonym for culture, until finally, with game theory and artificial intelligence, it becomes a number. Michael North tracks the obvious through these changes, showing why it remains, even now in the age of AI, as dark and mysterious as it was in the beginning"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formOnline version http://id.loc.gov/entities/relationships/onlineversion North, Michael, 1951- Making common sense Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2026 9781503646612
LCCN 2025036963
ISBN9781503646186 hardcover
ISBN1503646181 hardcover
ISBN9781503646605 paperback
ISBN1503646602 paperback
ISBNelectronic book
Standard identifier# CIPO000373382

Availability

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Joyner New Books B105 .C457 N68 2026 ✔ Available Want This?