Common sense

Meaning

In II.2.1 common sense belongs to the discussion of how embodied things are apprehended. It names a faculty associated with the coordination or reception of sensible information, rather than only the modern virtue of practical level-headedness. The rejected opinion says knowledge of this body lies wholly beyond human common sense and is reserved to angels or demons. The author instead proposes to make the subject palpable and visible; angels and demons are alleged privileged knowers, not the objects being sought.

This does not make sensation the whole of knowledge. Elsewhere intellect must infer hidden powers from their effects. The local point is that an invisible principle must take a bodily condition if its operation is to become manifest; invoking common sense supports that first step, while the foundations-and-roof comparison criticizes reversing the order.