Editing Commonsense reasoning (section)

== Definitions and characterizations ==
Some definitions and characterizations of common sense from different authors include:
* "[[Commonsense knowledge (artificial intelligence)|Commonsense knowledge]] includes the basic facts about events (including actions) and their effects, facts about knowledge and how it is obtained, facts about beliefs and desires. It also includes the basic facts about material objects and their properties."<ref>McCarthy, John. "Artificial intelligence, logic and formalizing common sense." Philosophical logic and artificial intelligence. Springer, Dordrecht, 1989. 161-190.</ref>
* "Commonsense knowledge differs from encyclopedic knowledge in that it deals with general knowledge rather than the details of specific entities."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tandon |first1=Niket |last2=Varde |first2=Aparna S. |last3=de Melo |first3=Gerard |title=Commonsense Knowledge in Machine Intelligence |journal=ACM SIGMOD Record |date=22 February 2018 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=49–52 |doi=10.1145/3186549.3186562}}</ref>
* Commonsense knowledge is "real world knowledge that can provide a basis for additional knowledge to be gathered and interpreted automatically".<ref>Matuszek, Cynthia, et al. "Searching for common sense: Populating cyc from the web." UMBC Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department Collection (2005).</ref>
* The commonsense world consists of "time, space, physical interactions, people, and so on".<ref name="Davis Marcus"/>
* Common sense is "all the knowledge about the world that we take for granted but rarely state out loud".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=How to Teach Artificial Intelligence Some Common Sense |url=https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-teach-artificial-intelligence-common-sense/ |access-date=11 February 2021 |magazine=Wired |date=13 November 2018 |language=en-us}}</ref>
* Common sense is "broadly reusable background knowledge that's not specific to a particular subject area... knowledge that you ought to have."<ref name=quanta/>

NYU professor Ernest Davis characterizes commonsense knowledge as "what a typical seven year old knows about the world", including physical objects, substances, plants, animals, and human society. It usually excludes book-learning, specialized knowledge, and knowledge of conventions; but it sometimes includes knowledge about those topics. For example, knowing how to play cards is specialized knowledge, not "commonsense knowledge"; but knowing that people play cards for fun does count as "commonsense knowledge".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Ernest |title=Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning: A Survey |journal=Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research |date=25 August 2017 |volume=59 |pages=651–723 |doi=10.1613/jair.5339|doi-access=free }}</ref>