Common Sense, How to Exercise It

Mental Efficiency Series #5

by Yoritomo-Tashi

Excerpt LESSON I COMMON SENSE: WHAT IS IT? One beautiful evening, Yoritomo-Tashi was strolling in the gardens of his master, Lang-Ho, listening to the wise counsels which he knew so well how to give in all attractiveness of allegory, when, suddenly, he paused to describe a part of the land where the gardener's industry was less apparent. Here parasitic plants had, by means of their tendrils, crept up the shrubbery and stifled the greater part of its flowers. Only a few of them reached the center of the crowded bunches of the grain stalks and of the trailing vines that interlaced the tiny bands which held them against the wall. One plant alone, of somber blossom and rough leaves, was able to flourish even in close proximity to the wild verdure. It seemed that this plant had succeeded in avoiding the dangerous entanglements of the poisonous plants because of its tenacious and fearless qualities, at the same time its shadow was not welcome to the useless and noxious creeping plants. "Behold, my son," said the Sage, "and learn how to understand the teachings of nature: The parasitic plants represent negligence against the force of which the best of intentions vanish." Energy, however, succeeds in overcoming these obstacles which increase daily; it marks out its course among entanglements and rises from the midst of the most encumbered centers, beautiful and strong. Ambition and audacity show themselves also after having passed through thousands of difficulties and having overcome them all. Common sense rarely needs to strive; it unfolds itself in an atmosphere of peace, far from the tumult of obstructions and snares that are not easily avoided. Its flower is less alluring than many others, but it never allows itself to be completely hidden through the wild growth of neighboring branches. It dominates them easily, because it has always kept them at a distance. Modest but self-sustaining, it is seen blossoming far from the struggles which always retard the blossoming of plants and which render their flowering slower and, at times, short-lived. A most absurd prejudice has occasionally considered common sense to be an inferior quality of mind. This error arises from the fact that it can adapt itself as well to the most elevated conceptions as to the most elemental mentalities. To those who possess common sense is given the faculty of placing everything in its proper rank. It does not underestimate the value of sentiments by attributing to them an exaggerated importance. It permits us to consider fictitious reasons with reservation and of resolutely rejecting those that resort to the weapons of hypocrisy. Persons who cultivate common sense never refuse to admit their errors. One may truly affirm that they are rarely far from the truth, because they practise directness of thought and force themselves never to deviate from this mental attitude. Abandoning for a moment his favorite demonstration by means of symbolism, Yoritomo said to us: "Common sense should be thus defined: "It is a central sense, toward which all impressions converge and unite in one sentiment-the desire for the truth....

Genres: Philosophy, Classics, Reference

Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Yoritomo-Tashi was a philosopher, well known and admired by his people and one of the greatest statesmen that Japan has ever had. Yoritomo-Tashi worked as a senior official for the state and wrote extensively on philopsophical subjects. The three great pillars of his teachings were reflected in his trio of books:

Common Sense: How to Exercise it
Influence-How to Exert it
Timidity-How to Overcome it

Reviews

[Akemi G.]

Just so you know, "Yoritomo-Tashi" is a made-up persona. He never existed; he was invented by the "translator" of early 20th century France(?) (who probably made lots of money by this scheme).

You can pretty much tell. While the bio on GR says he was a famous statesman/philosopher, there is no substantial info such as when he was born/died, what he did as a statesman, etc. No wiki. No info in Japanese. Sometimes it shows the picture of Tokugawa Ieyoshi (12th Tokugawa shogun).

I haven't read Yoritomo-Tashi's books. I just want to make it clear that, whatever it says, good or bad, it has nothing to do with the Japanese.

[Vlad Ardelean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rate books this old with 5 stars almost by default, unless there's something really really wrong with them. There's nothing wrong with this book, the views I saw here are very compatible with modern thought.

Disclaimer: I am not sure if this is the exact book I "read". I listened to this librivox audiobook: https://librivox.org/common-sense-how...

The audiobook mentions a lot of things that surely the author couldn't have written, such as some references to modern day business people.

Things that stuck with me:
* The author acknowledges cultural relativism. Having written this book sometime during the 12th century, he was aware of other cultures. He was aware of the Romans, and how certain customs of the romans would not be appropriate if performed in the Japanese society, and vice-versa.
* The author has analysed human nature to a great extent. As such he lists and distinguishes between a lot of terms. I forgot the terms and their definition, but a lot of them have to do with thinking. I imagine this could be a real example from the book (but as said, I forgot the terms used, so I'm making stuff up): Rationality, Will power, Penetration (this one's from the book), Understanding, Knowledge, Memory. The terms in the book seemed like they could have a lot of overlap.
* Practical sense - the author distinguishes this "relative" of common sense, declaring it good enough in most situations, and good enough for most people. What makes practical sense different from common sense, as I understand he sees things, is that common sense can also be used in situations which one is vastly unfamiliar with. Practical sense can server only in day-to-day situations. For instance, in science, one wouldn't be able to use practical sense, because basically all the things studied by science at this point are extremely far removed from our intuitions (example: atoms, galaxies).
* The author acknowledges that there are people who won't be able to acquire common sense, and therefore would benefit only from practical sense. He perceives some people as having a great need for certainty, even at the price of truth. Some people fear uncertainty so badly, that they prefer to be told lies than the truth, and it is these people that require superstitions. This is very much in tune with a saying from Confucius: "With people above the common, you must speak of things above the common. With people below the common, you MUST NOT speak of things above the common".
* The author comes up with a lot of examples of situations where people acted irrational. In those days, people believed in sorcery and gods a lot more than today. Some people took this to the extreme, as to not try too much to consider the impact of their own options, and just consider the gods responsible for everything. For instance, there was this young man who put a large sum of money in a bag which later tore open, making him lose the money which he worked a lot to get. The author showed him that the gods didn't have anything to do with him losing the money, and he should have instead inspected the bag, to see it was in a really bad shape.
* A whole chapter is dedicated to "Sentimentality". The author considers it as something bad, if taken to the extreme. The Japanese society seems to have had this trait whereby people were supposed to acknowledge, show and respect other people's emotions. That's not necessarily bad, and can be quite good at times, but the author focused on "common sense" being a guiding principle as to when to be more or less "sentimental". For instance, he talked about a famine, and a landlord neglecting his people, many of which subsequently died. After the famine was over, he made an appeal to his feelings, as an excuse for why he didn't help more. The author said this was bad.
* My personal take on this: There's very little difference between the thoughts of Yoritomo Tashi, and those of modern supporters of rational thinking (scientists etc.). What's very nice about what the author did, is the fact that he manages to convey ideas using very nice allegories (little stories), which one can remember easily. I'm not sure if this is a trait of asian thought, or it it's just this author, but I did see more allegories than usual when reading asian writings.

I totally recommend this book, to anyone interested in other cultures. I will recommend this to adolescents as well. Sure, the real world is more complicated than what one can get from this book, but this is a very good place to start if one wants to take rational thinking seriously.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading informative this book on Common Sense. A few of my favorite passages are as follows by Yoritomo-Tashi:

“Those, who see things through the medium of enthusiasm refuse to recognize that they could be deprived of brilliancy and beauty. The others, those who look upon things from a pessimistic standpoint, never find anything in them save pretexts for pouring out to their hearers tales of woe and misery.”

"We may all possess wisdom if we are willing to be persuaded that the experience of others is as useful as our own."

🟣 Media format Kindle version.

[Sandy Ⓢ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A veces no tenemos respuestas para ciertos interrogantes acerca de cómo tomar la mejor decisión o cómo reaccionar frente a ciertas circunstancias, éste libro te ayudará a encontrar esas respuestas, ayudará en cada aspecto de tu vida, una guía de cómo lograr desarrollar el sentido común y obtener a través de este múltiples beneficios. Un maravillosa lectura.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars (liked it)

Timeless advice from a 12th-Century Japanese philosopher.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a feeling that the author was speaking directly to reader and instructing him on the application of common sense. His instruction was a gentle scold, like that from a wise and loving grandparent who tells his grandson “think before you act and it will save you much trouble”

He touches on many ideas and argues why common sense is a worthy companion through life, such as logic vs irrationality. Being overly skeptical or optimistic. The dangers of sentimentality. and my favorite idea he covered was the perils of confusing impulse with intuition.

This book is certainly worth the read. It is quite short, but can be revisited from time to time to remind one of the importance of exercising common sense in our everyday decisions.

[German Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

De nuevo aqui opinando, este libro explica muy bien el comportamiento de la mente frente a experiencias de la vida, para mi este libro debería de ser un libro de consulta.