HKB
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Often appears with: religious persecution and toleration · rational inquiry · prejudice · perception and the senses · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · common sense
Usually: argument (1) · skepticism (1)
“On the subject of this sleeve he forms in his head a chaos of ideas which he is afraid to disentangle; and this veritably is not to have common sense.” Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary · observation
Voltaire explains “common sense” as reason guided by the senses yet crippled by fear and prejudice, using an Arab example who can do science but believes in Mohammed’s ‘half-moon’ despite rational doubt.
vastly deceived in another. This Arab, who will be a good calculator, a learned chemist, an exact astronomer, will believe nevertheless that Mohammed put half the moon in his sleeve. Why will he go beyond common sense in the three sciences of which I speak, and why will he be beneath common sense when there is question of this half moon? Because in the first cases he has seen with his eyes, he has perfected his inte…