Common sense

'Common sense' is most often invoked by politicians and commentators to defend the deeply unequal status quo. However, the notion has also been claimed through history by radicals and revolutionaries. Tom Paine gave the title Common Sense to a pamphlet in which he declared 'We have it in our power to begin the world over again'. So what is common sense? Where do common sense ideas come from and can they provide an accurate guide to action? This talk will look at the political history of the concept from the bourgeois revolutions to the Marxist tradition.