Good sense and common sense

Use in the book

Good sense can be applied to facts, ideas, politics or the arts. Especially when applied to ideas, it exceeds common sense in extent, subtlety and penetration, though not in usefulness. Common sense concerns the needs of life and the soul; literary and intellectual good sense concerns the delights of thought. The latter needs the former to prevent, arrest or correct its deviations, not because common sense actively shares all its work. A separate alternative formulation opposes self-concerned wit to good sense occupied with others. These contexts complicate the assumption that good sense means merely a conventional public opinion.

Places to read

1. II, p. 613, entry 4, ¶1Good sense is distributed across several objects of application.
2. II, p. 613, entry 4, ¶2Good sense and common sense receive distinct objects and complementary roles.
3. I, p. 420, entry 4, ¶1Other-directed good sense contrasts with self-directed wit.

Translation in this edition

The English translation reserves good sense for bon sens and common sense for sens commun in the principal comparison. Spirituel there is intellectual, with a possible association with wit, rather than exclusively devotional. Its abbreviated personal names remain unexpanded.