Abstract
The article deals with the common sense criteriology of the philosopher Balmes and its relationship with the Catalan conception of “seny”. Since it is a problem to explain the exact meaning of both “common sense” and “seny” in a philosophical sense we try to distinguish several possible meanings of both notions. Nevertheless, this is a large topic, therefore here it is studied in relationship with Balmesian philosophy. We begin by expounding Balmes' criteriology, where common sense is only one of three fundamental criteria of truth. Moreover, a first principle corresponds to each criterion. The criteria are 1) consciousness (first principle: the “cogito”), in whose scope all the interna1 facts of mind are included, 2) evidence, regulated by the principle of non contradiction, and 3) common sense or the natural tendency of our reason to the truth. However, this last notion is more complex and we need to distinguish its several meanings. Some of them are close to the notion of “seny”, a kind of practical wisdom. We conclude stating that in his early work Balmes conception of common sense was closer to the notion of “seny”, than in his Filosofia Funamental.
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