Tacit Knowledge

A Theory pioneered by Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), Tacit Knowledge tries to define and show deep meaning for phenomenon such as intuition, insight, and hunches; it is embeded or ingrained in each of us.  It combines your knowledge, values, beliefs, experiences and emotions and it is difficult to verbally express or describe this kind of Knowledge. Polany wrote: 'we can know more than we can tell' (Polany, 1967). Tacit knowledge is difficult to articulate, where Explicit knowlege can easily be communicated.
  
One of the most famous books of Polanyi was Personal Knowledge in where he asserted his belief that acts of discovery are stimulated with strong personal feelings and committments. The statement Tom mentions above was in the book The Tacit Dimension, were Polanyi termed Tacit knowledge as pre-logical phase of knowing. This knowledge encompasses conceptual and sensory information, and images that can retrieved from memory to make sense of new things. Many bits of knowledge can be synthesized to come up with new knowledge.
 
In one of his later writings, Meaning, he considered this internal knowledge and convictions within the appreciation of God and of the power of worship. Here we are generally resistent to change our basic foundational beliefs. www.infed.org/thinkers/polanyi.htm (Behling)
 
Polanyi, Michael (1967) The Tacit Dimension, New York: Anchor Books. (108 + xi pages).
 
Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Michael Polanyi and tacit knowledge', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/thinkers/polanyi.htm.
 

Clark, D. Knowledge. . Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/knowledge/knowledge.html.

 

 

 
Page written by: Tom Johnson
 
 
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