Additional Kotes. 40j 



The same extensive use of the word may, I believe, be found 

 in the other authors just mentioned. But no authority can 

 justify such a laxity in the employment of language in philoso- 

 phical discussions : for if mathematical axioms be (as they 

 manifestly and indisputably are) a class of propositions essen- 

 sially distinct from the other kinds of intuitive truths now de- 

 scribed, why refer them all indiscriminately to the same prin- 

 ciple in our constitution ? If this phrase, therefore, be at all 

 retained, precision requires that it should be employed in a 

 more limited acceptation j and accordingly, in the works under 

 our consideration. It is appropriated most frequently, though 

 by no means uniformly, to that class of intuitive truths which 

 I have already called fundamental laws of belief When thus 

 restricted it conveys a notion unambiguous at least, and defi- 

 nite j and, consequently, the question about its propriety and 

 impropriety turns entirely on the coincidence of this definition 

 with the ipeaning pf the word as employed in ordinary dia-' 

 course." 



<* I have said that the question about the propriety of th« 

 phrase Common Sense, as employed by philosophers, must be 

 decided by an appeal to general practice : for although it be 

 allowable, and even necessary, for a philosopher to limit the 

 acceptation of words which are employed vaguely in common 

 discourse, it Is always dangerous to give to a word a scientific 

 meaning essentially different from that in which it is usually 

 understood. It has, at least, the effect of misleading those who 

 do not enter deeply into the subject; and of giving a paradoxl- 

 , cal appearance to doctrines which, If expressed in more unex- 

 ceptionable terms, would be readily admitted." 



*' It appears to me that this has actually happened in the 

 present Instance. The phrase Cummun Sense, as it is generally 

 understood, is nearly synonymous with Mother'Xiit ; denoting 

 that degree of sagacity (depending partly on original capa- 

 city, and partly on personal experience and observation) which 

 qualifies an Individual for those simple and essential occupa- 

 tions which all men are called on to exercise habitually by their 

 common nature. In this acceptation it is opposed to those 



