the consolations of philosophy

every society has notions of what one should believe and how one should behave in order to avoid suspicion and unpopularity. some of these societal conventions are given explicit formulation in a legal code, others are more intuitively held in a vast body of ethical and practical judgements described as 'common sense', which dictates what we should wear, which financial values we should adopt, whom we should esteem, which etiquette we should follow and what domestic life we should lead. to start questioning these conventions would seem bizarre, even aggressive. if common sense is cordoned off from questions, it is because its judgements are deemed plainly too sensible to be the targets of scrutiny.

alain de botton

5:02 p.m. - 2008-12-17