Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction: Why Common Sense Matters
- Part I
- Part II
- 7 The Delineation of Common Sense
- 8 Common Sense in Metaphysics
- 9 Common-Sense Realism
- 10 The Epistemic Authority of Common Sense
- 11 Scepticism and Certainty: Moore and Wittgenstein on Common Sense and Philosophy
- 12 Morality and Common Sense
- 13 Common Sense and Ontological Commitment
- 14 The Tension between Scientific Knowledge and Common-Sense Philosophy
- 15 A Scientific-Realist Account of Common Sense
- References
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
11 - Scepticism and Certainty: Moore and Wittgenstein on Common Sense and Philosophy
from Part II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 November 2020
- The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
- The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction: Why Common Sense Matters
- Part I
- Part II
- 7 The Delineation of Common Sense
- 8 Common Sense in Metaphysics
- 9 Common-Sense Realism
- 10 The Epistemic Authority of Common Sense
- 11 Scepticism and Certainty: Moore and Wittgenstein on Common Sense and Philosophy
- 12 Morality and Common Sense
- 13 Common Sense and Ontological Commitment
- 14 The Tension between Scientific Knowledge and Common-Sense Philosophy
- 15 A Scientific-Realist Account of Common Sense
- References
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions
Summary
This chapter explores two influential conceptions of the role of common sense in philosophical theorizing from early analytical philosophy, due to G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Both approaches set out an important function for our everyday certainties to play in the epistemological enterprise, albeit in very different ways. For Moore, our common-sense certainties serve as a kind of reasonable stopping point in philosophical disputes. In particular, where common sense confronts philosophical theory, we can reasonably side with common sense. While Moore claims that our common-sense certainties have an epistemic weight simply in virtue of being common-sense certainties, for Wittgenstein the certainty that attaches to these commitments entails that they have no rational status at all. Nonetheless, this doesn’t prevent them from having a crucial import to epistemological questions. By setting these two philosophical approaches side by side, we gain an important perspective on how common sense might be appealed to in philosophical theorizing.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy , pp. 247 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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