Common Sense毕竟还是有别于“常识”
作者 张庆路
无论是在20世纪或21世纪，无论是在大陆或港澳台，英文common sense一词都被解释为“常识”，而“常识”也常被认为是common sense唯一正确的解释。但笔者却发现，common sense并不完全对等于“常识”，两者还是有一定区别的。在下面数例正规英文中，common sense均不宜解释为“常识”，而当另有他解。笔者现将那些自认为更为正确或确切的他解写在句后的括号中，供读者参考。（这些他解都有权威英英词典的相关出处，并非笔者杜撰）
例一：That left me with the area I did know: the people side of the business. I had to find out whether all my training in sales and marketing could be applied to working with people. I had to use everything I had learned from my father, from Charlie Beacham, and from my own experience and common sense. It was testing time.（“直觉”或“洞察力”）
例二：If you wish to think of nearly as a positive word representing an approach and almost as a “minus”word subtracting from an idea, all right, but the difference seems too subtle for ordinary common sense.（“一般的辨识能力”）
例三：The crown of all faculties is common sense.（“明智”或“理性”）
例四：Though he wasn’t schooled, his common sense guided him through life.（“天资”，“天赋”或“天生的敏慧”）
例五：美国独立战争时期的革命领导人Thomas Paine发表的一篇宣传独立革命的文章的题目“Common Sense”（“理性的抉择”）
以上括号中的说法显然与“常识”大相径庭，无法等同。
以下是笔者对common sense一词的几点体会或总结:
1）英语的common sense 不完全对等于中文的“常识”，前者的内涵要比后者丰富得多。
2）根据一些外教的看法，common sense 可以是judgment, intelligence, reason, sagacity, emotions, perception, instinct,etc., 但不可能是knowledge。
3）根据O.E.D.，common sense的解释可分一般说法与强调说法两种，这一点在一般的英英或英汉词典上都不会提及。