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Common Sense As A Cultural System (Clifford Geertz)

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Common Sense as a Cultural System (Clifford Geertz) Common sense is an organized body of considered thought which forms an ordered realm, therefore is a cultural system. A person shows common sense if he is able to adapt to his environment with some effectiveness, i.e. he is able to come up with strategies to ease living. Distinguishing between matter-of-fact apprehension of reality and down-to-earth assessment of it is vital in the analysis of common sense. There are five quasi-qualities that characterize common sense. First is “naturalness”. Common sense represents matters as being what they are. They are intrinsic aspects of reality and peculiarity is unnatural. Second is “practicalness”. Showing common sense means being practical. One should gain something from doing or knowing something. Third is “thinness” which can be equated to “simpleness” or “literalness”. Everything is what they seem to be, they are being taken literally. The fourth is “immethodicalness”. Common sense wisdom is inconsistent in such a way that it comes in different ways which are informal such as jokes, anecdotes, epigrams and proverbs. Last is the “accessibleness” of common sense. Everyone has given the opportunity to learn or to know common sense knowledge. It is open to all. There is no such thing as special powers, for common sense is for everyone, therefore there should be no peculiarity. (Geertz, 1983) Introduction: Globalizing Cultural Complexity (Mike Featherstone) In the postmodern
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