It relies on individuals socialisation and social practices as a source of cognition and entails a learning process. The empirical reality of common sense consists of qualified objects and the process of developing common sense is the process of qualification of experience. It is precisely because of its flexibility as a body of practical knowledge that common sense is considered here as people s notion of reality. They also learn that in order to understand reality we need to individuate it according to its basic elements. As a result, common sense is articulated through many subtle modes of reasoning used by individuals in their complex interactions with reality.
Common sense provides a critical foundation for the assessment of our experiences.
For instance, Sen s ethical considerations which affect actual human behaviour, Simon s concept of procedural rationality, Kahneman s criterion of substantive rationality, Mortimore s ordinary sense of rational action and Schutz s weak rationality are all examples of economists critical use of common sense as a foundation for economic analysis. Or, we could first turn to the history of economic thought and look for the critical common sense practices of economists concerned with reality. There is also much to be learned from Geoff Harcourt s horses for courses approach. Common sense is the veiled, unexplained and taken for granted principle behind these contributions. An explicit discussion of the role of common sense in economic theory may contribute to an understanding of the practical aspects neglected by the formalist revolution and help us to build up more reliable knowledge in our discipline.