ABSTRACT
This is the second of two consecutive chapters that provide theoretical explanations from select social thinkers and their theories and their implications for the study of common sense. Discussion continues from the early twentieth century through the contemporary, modern, and postmodern era. The social thinkers of this era also have varying ideas about the nature of common sense but many perspectives share a post-Marxist analysis. Our review begins with hermeneutic phenomenology (Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Castoriadis); continues with the ideas of Gramsci, Habermas, Wallerstein, Giddens and structuration theory, Collins and his interaction ritual chains theory, and McDonnell, Bail, and Tavory and their resonance theory; and concludes with a review of a variety of postmodernist perspectives including, post-feminism, posthumanism, posttranshumanism, and postcolonialism. Proponents of postmodern theories promote their perspectives as alternatives to the more traditional theories and question whether it is possible to arrive at a universal, objective conclusion about the character of common sense.
