Critically interrogating natural or common sense ways of knowing and being

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With the evolution of man, different beliefs and practices have come up. Create philosophers and thinkers have come up with different ideologies about life. That is through critical thinking and analysis on different matters in life. Long time ago people believed in the existence of a powerful being, more powerful than human being. This is clearly seen in the hierarchy of being where God is considered to be the highest and more powerful. However, in today’s society, everything that is done is human centered (Wolfreys, 2006). That is different theories have come up to show that human beings have involved themselves in critical thinking to come up with these theories about their origin and way of life. General principles have resulted to coming up of different ideas.

Different political philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Locke have come up with different theories. Issues that they tried to address in these theories majorly concerned the idea of personal freedom. Racism is one of the issues that these philosophers tried to address. In our society today, especially in the United States of America racism has been an issue of concern (Howard & Dei, 2008). Thus, many different theories were developed to show how Black Americans evolved. That is why they were discriminated in all arenas for instance in schools and jobs.

Some of the theories and ideologies have been founded in dichotomous logic. That means different things determine how we think and behave. The main purpose of the critics is to enlighten humanism on a number of concepts about life. Some of the philosophers such as Judith Butler use different concepts such as performativity. In which she says that, things have changed in today’s society as a result of postmodernism. Some of the things that she mentions in her ideology are the use of computers which has greatly affected how we think (Shotwell, 2011).

Critical thinking is interlinked with common sense. For you to critically think, and come up with an ideology, you must use your common sense. Thus, common sense is related to critical thinking. Common sense will mostly be determined by the knowledge that one has on different issues in life. Karl Marx one of the philosophers aimed at transforming Europe on the issue of social class. Karl Marx focused sociological organization of labor where he said that; capitalist will result to forced labor (Wolfreys, 2006). Thus he was against it and developed an ideology on communism.

In the recent past, people accepted doctrines without reasoning. As a result of that, dictatorship took the greatest part. However, as time went by people became more enlightened on different aspects of life and started fighting for their rights. These issues included gender, sexuality, and race. In humanism, individuals believe that, every individual is supposed to be free on every issue in life. That is why some of the philosophers emphases on freedom of expression and speech (Shotwell, 2011). Through the freedom of expression and speech people are able to express themselves on different aspects of life. They are able to fight for their rights, providing an arena for freedom of expression and expression of ideas.

Jurgen Habermas a philosopher takes a common sense position by saying that, all human beings share a common characteristic. Thus, through reasoning together we are able to come up with a decision. Human beings are always aimed at thinking critically in order to come up with a final decision which is for the betterment of the world. Through use of common sense people are able to come up with solutions on different issues surrounding them (Howard & Dei, 2008).

Notably, darkness happens as a result of absence of sunlight in the same way, reason is the negation of emotion. Postmodernism is as a result of humanism a theory that has been developed by various philosophers. Cultural studies theory encompasses several theories that have been brought up by different philosophers. These theories focus on the nature and common sense. They focus on the historical foundations of different communities. Although, we may say that, people become leaders in a society as a result of natural traits in some of the cases it may not be the case. It is important to understand that, philosophers used their common sense to come up with the cultural studies theories.

In most of the communities, common sense is linked with conservative political ideas. Thus, ideas on political matters come up as a result of use of common sense. Leaders such as Adolf Hitler lead people through use of dictatorship. Considering his background we may say that, leadership was not an inborn natural trait but the environment modeled him to become a leader that is through the use of his common sense. Additionally, issues on common sense arise on gender inequality. Some of the people discriminate women saying that, they are not able to thing rationally because of they are women. However, that is not the case women are able to come up with great ideas once they are given leadership positions, they are able to carry out activities which men cannot (Shotwell, 2011).

The society has changed as a result of the change in leadership strategies. People come up with different ideologies in regard to leadership styles and organization of the community structure. The different ideologies include communist and capitalists. This came up as a result of different people who shared the same ideas on the organization of the community. There is a need to satisfy the needs of different people in the society. Capitalist is focused on human alienation and mistreating members of the society for the sake of few members in the society. Thus, people came up with communist to ensure that, every member in the society is treated equally. This is because every person has a right of expression and speech to enable him comes up with different ways of survival in the society we are living.

In a nutshell, critical interrogation on different theories enables us to appreciate every person and their roles in the society. That is why Karl Marx ideology on the use of common sense is referred to as social philosophy. This is because it simply outlines how the society views life and their views on different aspects of life. Common sense in addition comes up as a result of social reality (Howard & Dei, 2008). This simply means common sense enables people to gain knowledge thus becoming intellects. Common sense is an important field that should be taken into consideration on various aspects of life. That is why some of the philosophers suggest that it should be a sixth sense to be studied.

References

Howard, P. S. S., & Dei, G. J. S. (2008). Crash politics and antiracism: Interrogations of liberal race discourse. New York: Peter Lang.

Shotwell, A. (2011). Knowing otherwise: Race, gender, and implicit understanding. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Wolfreys, J. (2006). Modern British and Irish criticism and theory: A critical guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.