Posted by Igor Perisic on October 22, 2003 at 15:33:51:

In Reply to: Don't trust Polanyi either (on tacit memory) posted by Lauri Gröhn on October 05, 2003 at 13:20:28:

Lauri,

Picking up the thread in the middle (or at the end) is rather strange. So bear with me here as I might have missed some points and I appologize for it alread.

From Polyani perspective, he didn't intend his statement to be interpreted as axioms. So in this I agree with you that they are open to "(empirical) scientific" discussions and experiments. Having said this, I wonder at which levels you are placing your doubts. Or what speculations of Polyani should be checked.

For example, should we refute the idea of a tacit (or implicit) knowledge? Without going into much details here, it seems to me that it would be really hard for either of us to describe to someone (explicitly) the concept of equilibrium in the act of walking. So I'll take it, for now, as a tacit knowledge. The question is then, are there "non physical activities" that can be similarily defined?

To this, I am drawn to an example that Snowden uses often. That of the "expert in offshore oil platforms" who knew the instant he put his foot on an oil platform, that it had a problem. If I recollect well, he was supposed to say "the music is not right".

But I might have mis-interpreted your reservations towards Polyani and tacit Knowledge.

Cheers,

Igor Perisic

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Follow Ups:

• Tacit memory of animals? Lauri Gröhn 00:42:05 10/23/03 (1)
  • Re: Tacit memory of animals? Igor Perisic 16:12:05 10/24/03 (0)

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