Starting from common sense

Abstract Can we escape our reliance on common sense? ‘Starting from common sense’ examines what common sense is, what it isn’t, and its usefulness as a check on philosophy. Aristotle, Thomas Reid, and G.E. Moore were all advocates of common sense—specifically, the common sense of their own time and place—whereas Bertrand Russell dismissed it as pre-scientific barbarism. There is a concern that common sense may become confused with common belief or used as a disguise for popular prejudice. Our evidence for philosophical experiments depends on common-sense methods of thinking. We have no choice but to start at common sense, but we do not have to end at it.