# Is there anything which is universally known? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989 "2014-08-30T19:08:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/21 "2014-08-31T02:11:02Z")
The SEC is overrated. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/22 "2014-08-31T03:51:21Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > The SEC is overrated. blasphemer. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/23 "2014-08-31T03:57:27Z")
We’re all going to die. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/24 "2014-08-31T04:15:05Z")
Some variant of “gravity” was my first thought, too: I was thinking, “If you jump straight up, you’ll come back down, unless there’s something wonky going on.” But there are a ton of other little things: it’s colder at night than in the day, water is nice on your tongue when you’re thirsty, it hurts when you stub your toe, etc. Assuming we’re excluding folks with profound brain damage from discussion, and also excluding pre-lingual children, there are a lot of similar things that are known even by folks with other severe handicaps (even someone born without legs will know by the time they’re ten that other folks feel pain when they stub their toes). ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/25 "2014-08-31T04:15:59Z")
Don’t wear white after Labor Day. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/26 "2014-08-31T04:19:22Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Don’t wear white after Labor Day. [Not everyone knows that.](http://www.skytop.com/Content/uploads/Image/santa-claus3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/27 "2014-08-31T04:30:52Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > That a singl… okay, I’ll stop. > > Does everyone know touching hot things hurts? Some people [can’t feel heat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain_with_anhidrosis). ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/28 "2014-08-31T09:14:45Z")
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Or so I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/29 "2014-08-31T09:43:05Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. > > Or so I’ve heard. Everybody knows the good guys lost. On everything else, I think that maybe one can find some pathology such that there are people who don’t in any real sense ‘know’ something—the ‘things fall down’ thing wouldn’t be known by somebody suffering from [akinetopsia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akinetopsia), the inability to perceive motion, for instance; people suffering from [prosopagnosia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia) can’t recognise human faces; people suffering from the [Cotard delusion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion) may believe that they don’t exist. In general, whatever you can think of, there’s probably some type of [agnosia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosia) such that the relevant knowledge is absent in some people. So I’d say that we probably best specialise to physiologically and behaviourally normal persons, in which case, I’d submit [object permanence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence)—the knowledge that things continue to exist even if they can’t be seen anymore. It’s present in human infants from about 4-8 months on. Even earlier is face recognition: I just learned from that wiki article that infants as young as 7 minutes prefer to look at faces, indicating that they at least know those are somehow special. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/30 "2014-08-31T12:54:47Z")
pain hurts ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/31 "2014-08-31T13:12:10Z")
every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/32 "2014-08-31T14:12:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > How about counting? I think pretty much every society has some basic concept of “how many?” No, there are languages still in use today that have words for one, two, and many – no names for any other numbers. Also colors – the world of languages is divided into those which differentiate green from blue, and those that don’t, which are called “grue languages”, and curiously, also differ from each other in other broad linguistic respects. So even color is not “universally known” in the way that we are accustomed to regarding it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/33 "2014-08-31T14:42:14Z")
But “one, two, many” is still counting albeit of a rudimentary manner. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/34 "2014-08-31T14:52:12Z")
Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. Kindergarten Cop is a great movie. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/35 "2014-08-31T14:55:08Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. > > Kindergarten Cop is a great movie. \*Ambiguous external genitalia is a thing. \*Kindergarten Cop has a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/36 "2014-08-31T16:28:59Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife. I thought it was “a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” I must have read a different version of the book. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/37 "2014-08-31T16:53:11Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > That a singl… okay, I’ll stop. Well, we’ve found where all the literature geeks hang out on SDMB… > [@](#): > > Does everyone know touching hot things hurts? I can attest that is something that young children have to learn. Stoves, in particular. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/38 "2014-08-31T18:59:24Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. > > Kindergarten Cop is a great movie. That it’s not a tumah! ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/39 "2014-08-31T19:00:36Z")
Could someone explain the “all men…” reference. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-which-is-universally-known/696989/40 "2014-08-31T20:29:10Z")
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