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The Claims of Common Sense

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  • Coates,John

Abstract

The Claims of Common Sense investigates the importance of ideas developed by Cambridge philosophers between the World Wars for the social sciences concerning common sense, vague concepts and ordinary language. John Coates examines the thought of Moore, Ramsey, Wittgenstein and Keynes, and traces their common drift away from early beliefs about the need for precise concepts and a canonical notation in analysis. He argues that Keynes borrowed from Wittgenstein and Ramsey their reappraisal of vague concepts, and developed the novel argument that when analysing something as complex as social reality, theory might be simplified by using concepts which lack sharp boundaries. Coates then contrasts this conclusion with the view shared by two contemporary philosophical paradigms - formal semantics and Continental post-structuralism - that the vagueness of ordinary language inevitably leads to interpretive indeterminacy. Developing a link between Cambridge philosophy and work on complexity, vague predicates and fuzzy logic, he argues that Wittgenstein's and Keynes's ideas on the economy of ordinary language present a mediating route for the social sciences between these philosophical paradigms.

Suggested Citation

  • Coates,John, 2007. "The Claims of Common Sense," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521039581, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:cbooks:9780521039581
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    Cited by:

    1. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2012. "The rhetoric of failure: a hyper-dialog about method in economics and how to get things going," MPRA Paper 43276, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2014. "Mr. Keynes, Prof. Krugman, IS-LM, and the End of Economics as We Know It," MPRA Paper 53608, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2012. "The common error of common sense: an essential rectification of the accounting approach," MPRA Paper 43196, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2012. "Why Post Keynesianism is not yet a science," MPRA Paper 43171, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2013. "Confused confusers. How to stop thinking like an economist and start thinking like a scientist," MPRA Paper 44046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2012. "Crisis and methodology: some heterodox misunderstandings," MPRA Paper 43260, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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