Reality in Common Sense: Reflections on Realism and Anti–Realism from a ‘Common Sense Naturalist’ Perspective

[T]he wisdom of philosophy is set in opposition to the common sense of mankind. The first pretends to demonstrate . . . that there can be no such thing as a material world; that sun, moon, stars, and earth . . . are, and can be nothing else, but sensations in the mind . . . The last can conceive no otherwise of this opinion, than as a kind of metaphysical lunacy, and concludes that too much learning is apt to make men mad . . . This opposition betwixt philosophy and common sense, is apt to have a very unhappy influence upon the philosopher himself . . . He considers himself and the rest of his species, as born under a necessity of believing ten thousand absurdities and contradictions . . .