Implicit knowledge. The concept of "tacit knowledge" according to Michael Polanyi Who owns the idea of tacit knowledge
IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
(eng. tacit knowledge) -, non-articulated and non-reflexive personal. The concept of N.z. was developed by M. Polanyi under the influence of the ideas of Gestalt psychology and for the first time presented in detail in his book. "Personal Knowledge" (1958). Polanyi singled out two types of knowledge - articulated knowledge, expressed in language, in concepts and judgments, and non-articulated, implicit knowledge, latently contained in perception schemes, practical skills, arts, bodily skills, etc. In his opinion, our conceptual schemas are analogous to the function of our perceptual schemas, allowing us to see new objects, as well as the functions of our needs, which enable us to recognize new objects as a means of satisfying these needs. According to Polanyi, there are two criteria for correct perception - the clarity of the contour (its contrast, lack of midtones) and the meaningfulness of the perceived image together determine what the eye will see. In the visual perception of the environment, one can find the origins of the connection between the active formation of knowledge and the acceptance of this knowledge as a substitute for reality. This connection is hallmark any personal knowledge.
The roots of personal knowledge are in the peripheral awareness of the body, which is the background for the focal consciousness. The external is comprehended due to the fact that it becomes our own continuation - it turns into a “tool”, getting into the operating room created by our purposeful action, and acts in this field as a continuation of our body. The sign or is similar to a tool and is such only for a person who relies on it to achieve something or to denote something that has no real correlate. This support is the self-giving that is present in every intellectual accomplishment and draws things together to a single focus. Therefore, everything connected with the assimilation of some things, which, due to their presence in the peripheral consciousness, become our instrumental continuation, is a way of realizing one's own personality. The adaptation of concepts to the already existing understanding of the whole also occurs at the peripheral level of consciousness, and the condition for such an understanding is a certain integration of the meanings of the parts of the whole, their transformation into a consistent interconnected, where the meaning of the parts is determined by the meaning of the whole, a holistic understanding. Remaining out of the focus of consciousness, N.z. contains the meaning of formalisms, research techniques and methods of cognition, which presupposes a certain relationship between parts and the whole. According to Polanyi, cognition is an act of continuing our personality in the peripheral awareness of the objects that make up. Progress in scientific discovery depends on the dedication of the individual in scientific research, in which contacts with reality are established. Self-confidence determines our readiness to abandon the routine course of action. Our self-giving in the search for something new is invariably imbued with passion: the guideline on the path to reality turns out to be intellectual.
IN scientific knowledge explicit, articulated knowledge acts as interpersonal knowledge, represented in scientific hypotheses, theories, theoretical models, experimental laws, etc. However, according to Polanyi, articulation always remains incomplete in relation to knowledge. Therefore, science is impossible without implicit personal knowledge, which is latently contained in the individual experience of researchers - in their art of experimentation, diagnostics, mastery of theoretical methods, etc. This non-articulated "tacit" knowledge is not presented in textbooks and manuals, it cannot be found in scientific monographs and journal articles, it is transmitted either during direct personal contacts of scientists, or in the process of joint experimental research. Polanyi's concept was put forward as an alternative to "fundamentalist" theories of knowledge (logical empiricism, Marxism, etc.), which completely ruled out the presence of innate, unconscious and non-reflective forms of knowledge. She received a partial in the course of further cognitive research.
Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .
See what "IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE" is in other dictionaries:
- (English tacit knowledge) a kind of knowledge, which includes the knowledge that cannot be easily transferred to others. The term was proposed by Michael Polanyi. In his work, he wrote about the process, and not about the form of knowledge, but his term was ... ... Wikipedia
IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE- (English tacit knowledge) an epistemological concept introduced by Polanyi and denoting an inarticulate and not amenable to complete reflection layer of human knowledge of skill. The concept of N.z. Polanyi developed in the book. Personal Knowledge (1958), where ... ... Modern Western Philosophy. encyclopedic Dictionary
IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE- information used in practical and cognitive (including scientific) activities that does not have a clear discursive and operational design. The repository of implicit knowledge is the sphere of sensual and intellectual intuition, and ... ... Philosophy of Science: Glossary of Basic Terms
EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE is a categorical opposition that plays a significant role in M. Podan's philosophical and methodological concept. Cognitive interest can be focused on the integrity of the object or on its structural elements. In the first… … Philosophical Encyclopedia
explicit and implicit knowledge- EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE is a categorical opposition that plays a significant role in the philosophical and methodological concept of M. Polanyi. Cognitive interest can be focused on the integrity of the object or on its structural elements. IN… … Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science
PERSONAL (IMPLICIT) KNOWLEDGE- components of scientific knowledge, which are the prerequisites for thinking, which cannot be fully expressed in the language in the form of clear formulations (skills of perception, use of the language of science, methods of experimentation, practical skills, value ... Philosophy of Science and Technology: Thematic Dictionary
Hidden, silent, implicit (from Latin implicite in a hidden form, implicitly; the opposite of explicite), peripheral in contrast to the central, or focal, i.e. in the focus of consciousness. Empirical the basis of the personal silent ... ... Encyclopedia of cultural studies
The result of the process of cognition, usually expressed in language or in c.l. iconic form. The desire to understand what Z. is and how it differs from other products of human consciousness is already characteristic of the philosophers of antiquity, who set and tried ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
KNOWLEDGE IS LIVING- (English living knowledge) the concept of “Z. and." in the beginning. 20th century used by G. G. Shpet (1914, 1922), S. L. Frank (1915, 1917, 1923). Such knowledge might. both to theoretical, to scientific, and post-theoretical, including scientific knowledge. In the book… … Great Psychological Encyclopedia
tacit knowledge is hidden, non-articulated and non-reflective personal knowledge. The concept of N.z. was developed by M. Polanyi under the influence of the ideas of Gestalt psychology and for the first time presented in detail in his book. "Personal Knowledge" (1958). Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy (1958) was a significant event in the history of post-positivist philosophy of science. M.Polani proclaimed that he seeks to constructively overcome the idea of the possibility of a depersonalized representation of scientific knowledge. It is necessary, according to Polanyi, to overcome this false ideal, which is wrongly identified with objectivity. Explaining the phrase “personal knowledge” in the title of his book, Polanyi notes: “It may seem that these two words contradict each other, because true knowledge is considered impersonal, universal, objective. For me, knowledge is an active comprehension of known things, an action that requires special art. According to Polanyi, the term "personal knowledge" describes well this peculiar fusion of the personal and the objective.
Since science is made by people, the resulting scientific activity knowledge, like this process itself, cannot be depersonalized. This is exactly what M.Polani wants to emphasize. Personal knowledge captures both the cognizable reality and the cognizing personality itself with its interested attitude towards knowledge, with its personal approach to its interpretation and use. At the same time, personal knowledge is not only explicit knowledge expressed in concepts, judgments, theories, but also implicit knowledge, non-articulated in language and embodied in some kind of bodily skills, perception schemes, and practical skills.
The concept of implicit knowledge of Polanyi is one of the fruitful attempts to comprehend the integrity of everyday practical knowledge (including the experience of visual perception, bodily-motor skills and instrumental activity), natural science, socio-humanitarian and artistic knowledge. At the same time, it strikes a blow at the old ideas that separate (and oppose) subjectivity and objectivity in science.
In the epistemology of M. Polanyi, the anthropological orientation is significantly strengthened, which can be reduced to the following provisions:
- science is made by people with a vocation, experience, skill;
- scientific and cognitive activity cannot be mastered from a textbook (since implicit knowledge does not allow full explication and presentation in educational literature); therefore, direct communication between a novice scientist and a master is required, which ensures the transfer of his experience "from hand to hand", i.e. personal contacts of researchers are required;
- people who make science cannot be replaced by others and separated from the knowledge they produce;
- in scientific cognitive activity very important are the motives of personal experience, feelings, inner faith in science, in its value, as well as the interest of the scientist, his personal responsibility.
M. Polanyi emphasizes the great importance of the phenomenon of faith in the cognitive process. According to him, “faith has been so discredited that, in addition to a limited number of situations related to the practice of religion, modern man lost the ability to believe, to accept with conviction any statements that the phenomenon of faith has received the status of a subjective manifestation that does not allow knowledge to reach universality.
The time has come, Polanyi believes, to recognize again that faith is the source of knowledge. It is on it that mutual trust is built in society. Consent (explicit and implicit), intellectual passion, the inheritance of culture - all this is closely related to faith. The human mind relies on faith as its ultimate foundation, but every time it is able to question it. The appearance and existence in science of sets of axioms, postulates, principles is also rooted in our belief that the world is a perfect, harmonious whole that we can know.
In Polanyi's concept of personal knowledge, there are three areas (or variants) of the relationship between thinking and speech. The first area is implicit knowledge, the verbal expression of which is difficult or insufficiently adequate. It can be called the realm of the "inexpressible", because in it the component of tacit implicit knowledge dominates to such an extent that its articulated expression is essentially impossible. This area covers knowledge based on experiences and life impressions. The second area of knowledge contains information that is quite well transmitted by means of speech. Finally, in the third area of "difficult understanding" there is an inconsistency between the non-verbal content of thinking and speech means, which makes it difficult to conceptualize the content of thought. This is an area in which tacit knowledge and formal knowledge are independent of each other.
The mechanism of familiarization with the object is also immersed in the volume of personal, implicit knowledge, as a result of which the latter is included in the process of life activity, the skills and abilities of communicating with it are formed. However, skills are different and individual. The task of copying someone else's skill generates its own layer of personal knowledge. “Written rules of skillful action may be useful, but in general they do not determine the success of an activity; these are maximums that can serve as a guideline only if they fit into the practical skill or mastery of the art. They cannot replace personal knowledge."
Polanyi's scientific experience is inwardly experienced, due to the passionate desire of the researcher to achieve truly scientific truth, i.e. clearly personalized. This is the main conclusion from Polanyi's concept.
The fundamental innovation of the concept of M. Polanyi is also an indication that the very meaning of scientific provisions depends on the implicit context of hidden knowledge. At the same time, Polanyi argues that meaning is inseparable from the personal certainty that is invested in the proclaimed scientific judgment.
The concept of personal knowledge M. Polanyi.
Peripheral (implicit) knowledge.
Three areas of correlation between thinking and speech. - The area of "inexpressible" and the area of "difficulty understanding".
The instrumental nature of "knowing how"
In the philosophy of science, the author's concepts of the development of science M. Polanyi, St. Toulmin, T. Kuhn, I. Lakatos, J. Agassi, P. Feyerabend, J. Holton. The concept of implicit, personal knowledge is distinguished by the greatest originality. Polanyi. Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) - British scientist, a native of Hungary. He worked in Berlin at the Institute of Physical Chemistry, after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, he emigrated to the UK, where he held the position of professor of physical chemistry and social sciences at the University of Manchester.
M. Polanyi takes a step towards the sociology of science. His famous work, by its very name, “Personal Knowledge. On the way to post-critical philosophy” manifests new priorities. Of course, this concept was met with hostility by K. Popper, who accused her of irrationalism. According to Rorty, Quine also reproached Polanyi for wanting to get rid of the notion of observation 1 . Although the main pathos of the concept of M. Polanyi was to overcome the false ideal of depersonalized scientific knowledge , mistakenly identified with objectivity. “The ideal of impersonal, impartial truth is subject to revision, taking into account the deeply personal nature of the act by which truth is proclaimed,” the thinker argued. “I have abandoned the ideal of scientific impartiality,” he wrote, “and I want to propose a different ideal of knowledge.” Discussing the title of his book “Personal Knowledge”, the scientist noted: “It may seem that these two provisions contradict each other; for true knowledge is considered impersonal, universal, objective. For me, knowledge is an active comprehension of knowable things, an action that requires special art.
In the epistemology of M. Polanyi, anthropological orientations are significantly strengthened. The main theses are the conclusions:
science is made by people with skill;
the art of cognitive activity cannot be learned from a textbook. It is transmitted only in direct communication with the master. (Thus, the traditional principle “Do as I do!” sounds with renewed vigor and is presented in a new paradigm);
people who make science cannot be replaced by others and separated from the knowledge they produce;
in cognitive and scientific activity, the motives of personal experience, experience, inner faith in science, in its value, the scientist's interest, and personal responsibility are extremely important.
For Polanyi, personal knowledge is intellectual self-giving, the passionate contribution of the knower. This is not evidence of imperfection, but an essential element of knowledge. He emphasizes that any attempt to exclude the human perspective from our picture of the world inevitably leads to nonsense. The scientist is sure that the establishment of the truth becomes dependent on a number of our own, implicit grounds and criteria that are not amenable to formal definition. Corresponding restrictions on the status of truth formalized in words are also inevitable.
Polanyi re-evaluates the huge role of faith in the cognitive process, noting that “faith has been so discredited that, in addition to a limited number of situations related to the profession of religion, modern man has lost the ability to believe, to accept with conviction any statements that the phenomenon of faith received the status of a subjective manifestation, which does not allow knowledge to reach universality” 6 . Today, according to the author, we must again recognize that faith is the source of knowledge. It builds a system of mutual public trust. Consent explicit and implicit, intellectual passion, the inheritance of culture - all this suggests impulses closely related to faith. Reason relies on faith as its ultimate foundation, but every time it is able to question it. The emergence and existence in science of sets of axioms, postulates and principles is also rooted in our belief that the world is a perfect harmonious whole, amenable to our knowledge.
For M. Polanyi it is obvious that the mastery of knowledge cannot be described and expressed by means of language, no matter how developed and powerful it may be. This thesis, of course, contradicts the task of creating a unified language of science. The scientific knowledge presented in the texts of scientific articles and textbooks, according to the thinker, is just a certain part that is in the focus of consciousness. The other part is focused on the half of the so-called peripheral (or implicit) knowledge that constantly accompanies the process of cognition. Implicit, peripheral knowledge can be interpreted by analogy with the “marginal recognition of sensations” from an instrument in the hand, without which the process of activity as a purposeful process is impossible. “The act of knowing is carried out by organizing a series of objects that are used as tools or landmarks, and shaping them into a skillful result, theoretical or practical. We can say that in this case our consciousness is "peripheral" in relation to the main "focus of consciousness" of the integrity that we achieve as a result.
And
The second area of knowledge is quite well transmitted by means of speech. This is the area where the component of thinking exists in the form of information that can be completely conveyed by well-understood speech, so that here the area of tacit knowledge coincides with the text, the bearer of the meaning of which it is. In the third area, the area of "difficult understanding" - between the non-verbal content of thinking and speech means - there is an inconsistency that makes it difficult to conceptualize the content of thought 4 . This is an area in which tacit knowledge and formal knowledge are independent of each other. The mechanism of familiarization with the object is also immersed in the volume of personal, implicit knowledge, as a result of which the latter is included in the process of life activity, the skills and abilities of communicating with it are formed. Thus, acquaintance with an object as initial knowledge about it, turning into a skill and ability to use, handle this object, becomes a person's personal knowledge. Note, however, that the skills, for all their similarity in the scheme of activity, are different and individual. The task of copying someone else's skill generates its own layer of personal knowledge. (H.P. - the experience of Cicero).“The writing of the rules of skillful action, - M. Polanyi is sure, - can be useful, but in general they do not determine the success of the activity; they are maxims that can serve as a guide only if they fit into the practical skill or mastery of the art. They cannot replace personal knowledge."
It is set by the whole bodily organization of a person and is inseparable from instrumental knowledge, which has remained unarticulated. Operationally, the meaning is formed, as it were, in the following plane - in the process of the experience of internal reading of the emerging text “for oneself” and efforts to articulate it “outside”, through the language system created by man. Polanyi argues that meaning is also inseparable from the personal confidence that is invested in the proclaimed scientific judgment.
Researchers of the thinker's creativity emphasize that the discoveries of Gestalt psychology prompted him to revise the foundations of the traditional concept of knowledge. Gestalt - as an image or a visually stable spatially perceived form of objects - suggests the primacy of the whole over the parts. It is applied to mental formations to recreate a single holistic structure that unites and connects various elements and components. Indeed, the technology of operational skills, the processes of the formation of skills as knowledge, which, in addition to the objective result, pours into new meanings, into personality-colored content, escaped the field of view of methodologists and epistemologists. M. Polanyi led to the need to consider a new model for the growth of scientific knowledge, which would take into account the existing personal-cognitive mechanisms of cognitive activity.
Comments and explanations:
Knowledge - selective, ordered, in a certain way (method) obtained, in accordance with some criteria (norms), formalized information that has social significance and is recognized as knowledge by certain social subjects and society as a whole. Depending on the above criteria, knowledge can be divided into two types according to the level of its functioning: ordinary knowledge Everyday life and specialized knowledge (scientific, religious, philosophical, etc.). There are also structures of explicit, presented, rationally designed (expressed), and implicit (latent) knowledge, localized in the structures of accumulated sociocultural experience and in the human subconscious. In addition, in explicit knowledge, one can single out “objective”, aimed at objects, processes, phenomena of knowledge and meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge). In philosophy, the following sections deal with the problem of knowledge: epistemology (“the doctrine of knowledge”), epistemology (“the doctrine of knowledge”). Methodology (“the doctrine of method”) claims a special status.
Let us now consider in detail the relationship between explicit and implicit knowledge.
explicit knowledge- this is such knowledge that can be codified into information and stored on media (paper and electronic), and it will exist regardless of its perception by a person. Explicit knowledge corresponds to today's, yesterday's and can be recorded on a medium.
Intangible knowledge - hidden, non-articulated and non-reflective personal knowledge, non-articulated and non-reflective layer of human experience. Implicit knowledge is associated with the practical experience of the individual and cannot be codified without partial loss of information. Implicit knowledge includes skills, abilities, abilities, feelings of a person. Implicit knowledge is a unique resource that is difficult to copy.
As shown above, M. Polanyi proceeds from the thesis that a person has two types of knowledge: explicit, articulated, expressed in concepts and judgments, and implicit, implicit, not articulated in language, but embodied in bodily skills, in perception schemes, and practical mastery. . In his treatment of tacit knowledge, Polanyi draws a distinction between "focal" perception and recognition of things of "peripheral" or "instrumental" knowledge.
Polanyi's central idea consists in the fact that science is made by people who have mastered the appropriate skills and abilities of cognitive activity, the mastery of cognition, which cannot be exhaustively described and expressed by means of language. Therefore, articulated scientific knowledge, what is presented in the texts of textbooks, scientific articles, according to Polanyi, is only a small part of knowledge that is in the focus of consciousness. The perception of meaning is impossible outside the context of peripheral, implicit knowledge. The meaning of scientific statements is determined by the implicit context of hidden (or tacit) knowledge, which is instrumental in nature: “knowledge-how-it is done”, “knowledge-skills”, given by the entire bodily and mental organization of a person. The process of articulation, "reading" of the meaning, which is in the focus of consciousness, is impossible without a holistic, non-detailed context.
In scientific knowledge, explicit, articulated knowledge acts as interpersonal knowledge, it is represented in scientific theories, hypotheses, theoretical models, and experimental laws. However, according to Polanyi, articulation always remains incomplete in relation to knowledge. Therefore, the progress of science is impossible without implicit personal knowledge, which is latently contained in the individual experience of researchers - in their art of experimentation, diagnostics, mastery of theoretical models. This non-articulated, "silent" knowledge is not presented in textbooks and manuals, it cannot be found in scientific monographs and journal articles. It is transmitted either in the course of direct personal contacts of scientists, or in the process of joint experimental research. Polanyi's concept was put forward as an alternative to the "fundamentalist" theories of knowledge (logical empiricism, Marxism), which completely exclude the presence of innate, unconscious and non-reflective forms of knowledge. Progress in scientific knowledge, according to Polanyi, depends on the dedication of the individual, in which contacts with reality are established. Self-confidence determines our willingness to give up a routine course of action. Our dedication to the search for something new is imbued with passion.
We know our language in the sense that we know how to use it to convey this or that objective content. But this knowledge of the language is implicit, because for us the language is inseparable from the objects that we receive with its help. Sometimes we do not even notice this language itself, its structure, it is in the "background", on the "periphery" of consciousness. But through reflection, language can turn into explicit knowledge. When we speak, we do not reflect "correctness", compliance with the norms of speech, literacy of writing. Norms, rules are observed intuitively, automatically. Through reflection, we turn implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge.
I call Polanyi's position "post-critical rationalism". This means, firstly, the recognition of the obvious fact that science is made by people, and moreover by people who have mastery; the art of cognitive activity and its subtleties cannot be learned from a textbook, it is given only in direct communication with the master. It follows from this that, secondly, people who make science cannot be mechanically and simply separated from the knowledge they produce and replaced by other introductions to this knowledge only with the help of textbooks. And, finally, thirdly, Polanyi introduces into the modern philosophy of science the motive of scientific experience as an inner experience, inner faith in science, in its value, the passionate interest of the scientist in the search for objective scientific truth, personal responsibility to it.
Implicit knowledge is mastered by a person in practical actions, in modern scientific work and serve as the basis for his purposeful activity. In science, explicit knowledge is represented in concepts, theories, and implicit knowledge is represented as personal knowledge woven into the art of experimentation and theoretical skills of scientists, into their passions and beliefs. From Polanyi's point of view, there are "two types of knowledge, which are always jointly included in the process of knowing the all-encompassing wholeness. These are: - knowledge of the object by focusing on it as a whole; - knowledge of the object based on our ideas about what purpose it serves as part of this integrity, a part of which it is. The latter can be called implicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge, according to Polanyi, is not subject to full explication and is transmitted through direct training in the skill of scientific research and personal contacts of scientists. It is passed from hand to hand. Polanyi's scientific experience is internally experienced, due to the passionate desire of the researcher to achieve truly scientific truth, and is clearly colored by personality.
“When I perceive some group of objects, at the same time I am aware of the difference between my consciousness and these objects, I am aware of the spatio-temporal position of my body. However, all these facts of consciousness are not in its "focus", but, as it were, in the "background", on its "periphery". Directly my consciousness is aimed at external objects, which are the subject of knowledge. My body, my consciousness, my cognitive process in this case are not included in the circle of objects of experience, objects of knowledge. Thus, the knowledge about oneself assumed by any experience, expressed in the form of self-consciousness, is knowledge of a special kind. It could be somewhat tentatively called "implicit knowledge" in contrast to the explicit knowledge with which we usually deal. The purpose of the cognitive process is to obtain explicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge acts as a means, a way of obtaining explicit knowledge” / Lektorsky V.A. Subject, object, cognition. - M. 1980. P.255. When I touch an object with my hand, I feel the object itself, not my hand. Tactile perception speaks of an external object, and not of itself. And only in the “background” of consciousness do I experience the act of my own touch and localize the impact of the object on me at my fingertips. In this case, if I touch the object not with my hand, but with a stick, the tactile perception again refers to the object itself, and not to the means I use - the plaque. The latter no longer falls into the "focus" of consciousness, but turns out to be on its "periphery" and is experienced as a direct continuation of my body. In this case, the sensation of the impact of the object - we have already pointed out that this is not the same as the tangible image of objects! - is experienced by me as localized no longer at the fingertips, but at the end of the stick / Lektorsky V.A. Subject, object, cognition. - M. 1980. P.255.
M. Polanyi, re-evaluates the huge role of faith in the cognitive process, noting that “faith has been so discredited that, in addition to a limited number of situations related to the profession of religion, modern man has lost the ability to believe, to accept with conviction any statements that the phenomenon of faith has received the status of a subjective manifestation, which does not allow knowledge to reach universality. Today, according to the author, we must again recognize that faith is the source of knowledge. It builds a system of mutual public trust. Consent explicit and implicit, intellectual passion, the inheritance of culture - all this suggests impulses closely related to faith. Reason relies on faith as its ultimate foundation, but every time it is able to question it. The emergence and existence in science of sets of axioms, postulates and principles is also rooted in our belief that the world is a perfect harmonious whole, amenable to our knowledge.
Polanyi demonstrates his rich awareness of the course and development of the philosophy of science. He states (not without regret) that such a representation of natural science is chosen as the ideal of knowledge, in which it looks like a set of statements, “objective in the sense that their content is entirely determined by observation, and their form can be conventional.” Thus, he indirectly points to all three stages passed by the philosophy of science, reducing it to an economical description of facts, to a conventional language for recording conclusions, and to formulating observational data in the language of protocol sentences. However, intuition, in his opinion, cannot be removed from the cognitive process.
In M. Polanyi's concept of personal knowledge, interpreters single out three main areas or three options for the ratio of thinking And speech. The first is characterized by the area of implicit knowledge, the verbal expression of which is not self-sufficient or insufficiently adequate. This is an area in which the component of tacit implicit knowledge dominates to such an extent that its articulated expression is essentially impossible here. It can be called the realm of the "inexpressible". It encompasses knowledge based on experiences and life impressions. This is deeply personal knowledge, and it is very, very difficult to translate and socialize. Art has always tried to solve this problem by its own means. The act of co-creation and empathy reflected the ability to look at the world and life through the eyes of the hero of the life drama.
The second area of knowledge is quite well transmitted by means of speech. This is the area where the component of thinking exists in the form of information that can be completely conveyed by well-understood speech, so that here the area of tacit knowledge coincides with the text, the bearer of the meaning of which it is. In the third area, the area of "difficult understanding" - between the non-verbal content of thinking and speech means - there is an inconsistency that makes it difficult to conceptualize the content of thought 4 . This is an area in which tacit knowledge and formal knowledge are independent of each other. The mechanism of familiarization with the object is also immersed in the volume of personal, implicit knowledge, as a result of which the latter is included in the process of life activity, the skills and abilities of communicating with it are formed. Thus, acquaintance with an object as initial knowledge about it, turning into a skill and ability to use, handle this object, becomes a person's personal knowledge. Note, however, that the skills, for all their similarity in the scheme of activity, are different and individual. The task of copying someone else's skill generates its own layer of personal knowledge. “The writing of the rules of skillful action, - M. Polanyi is sure, - can be useful, but in general they do not determine the success of the activity; they are maxims that can serve as a guide only if they fit into the practical skill or mastery of the art. They cannot replace personal knowledge."
The fundamental innovations of the concept of M. Polanyi consist in pointing out that the very meaning of scientific provisions depends on the implicit context of hidden knowledge, “knowledge as”, which has an instrumental character in its deep foundations. It is set by the whole bodily organization of a person and is inseparable from the instrumental knowledge that remains unarticulated. Operationally, the meaning is formed, as it were, in a cutting plane - in the process of the experience of internal reading of the emerging text “for oneself” and efforts to articulate it “outside”, through the language system created by man. Polanyi argues that meaning is also inseparable from the personal confidence that is invested in the proclaimed scientific judgment.
A modern scientist must be ready to fix and analyze the results born outside and in addition to his conscious goal-setting, including the fact that the latter may turn out to be much richer than the native goal. Content-semantic contexts unplanned by goal-setting, unintentionally intruding into the result, reveal the world uninterestedly universally. A fragment of being isolated as a subject of study is in fact not an isolated abstraction. With a network of interactions, currents of multidirectional tendencies and forces, it is connected with the infinite dynamics of the world, the knowledge of which science is obsessed with. The main and secondary, central and peripheral, main and dead-end directions, having their own niches, coexist in constant non-equilibrium interaction. There are situations when the developing process does not contain ready-made forms of future states. They arise as by-products of interactions that take place outside the phenomenon itself, or at least on the periphery of this framework. And if earlier science could afford to cut off side branches - peripheral spheres that seemed insignificant - now this is an unaffordable luxury. It turns out that it is generally not easy to define what “not important” or “not interesting” means in science. Arising on the periphery of connections and relationships, against the background of the intersection of diverse chains of causation in a network of universal interaction (including under the influence of factors that have insignificantly manifested themselves in the past), a by-product can act as a source of neoplasm and be even more significant than originally set goal. He testifies to the indestructible desire of being to realize all its potentialities. Here there is a kind of equalization of opportunities, when everything that has a place to be declares itself and requires a recognized existence.
Knowledge can be divided into explicit, for example, codified, and implicit, that is, personal, which cannot be codified. In general, tacit knowledge is a curious substance. It cannot be seen, felt and 100% adopted, therefore, it is very difficult to manage. But it is the implicit knowledge that is often the most important. Philosopher of science Michael Polanyi, who introduced the very concept of "tacit knowledge" into culture, cites the following case as an illustration of the role of "tacit knowledge". One British laboratory bought equipment from American colleagues. Before starting work, the British carefully studied many operating instructions. However, the equipment never worked. The specialists puzzled over what was the matter until they decided to go to the manufacturer and see with their own eyes how to use the machines correctly. After returning, the team was able to start the equipment. When asked about what new specialists learned during the trip, they answered that they could not formulate anything new compared to what was contained in the instructions. Here is a prime example of detecting the presence of implicit knowledge. Or another example: it is known that the elder Kapitsa worked for a long time in the UK, headed a laboratory (research institute). When the Soviet government offered to buy this (NII) in connection with the end of Kapitsa's long business trip, Heisenberg helped in this, saying the following: the laboratory (NII) was created specifically for Kapitsa, and no one else could work there, so the laboratory should be sold to the Soviets.
Thus, it turns out that people are the carriers of this important type of knowledge, and this knowledge is transmitted during communication, such as internships, conferences, and joint work. Another example: In Ancient Rome there was such a practice of training future statesmen. A young man was brought into the house of some well-known senator, and he, watching how the senator prepares political speeches, helping him in this, acquired skills, learned the norms of behavior. See about Cicero.
Through reflection, we turn implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge. §. Reflection as a tool for turning implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge.
EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE is a categorical opposition that plays a significant role in the philosophical and methodological concept of M. Polanyi. Cognitive interest can be focused on the integrity of the object or on its structural elements. In the first case, knowledge about the object and its functions appears as central (focal), or explicit, and knowledge about the elements as peripheral, or implicit, implied (tacit). In the second case, explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge change roles. Depending on the predominance of one or another approach, the cognizing subject has to sacrifice either the meaning of the whole or the meaning of individual elements. Synthetic cognition acts as a unity or complementarity of both cognitive relations.
Explicit knowledge is expressed verbally and in logically explicated forms; it has an impersonal character, i.e. bears no trace of subjectivity. Explicit knowledge is information that is perceived and understood in the same way by all subjects who know its semantics, the rules of formation and transformation. The means of translating explicit knowledge are standard and reproducible information channels: printed publications, tables, diagrams, computer programs, etc. Unlike explicit, implicit knowledge cannot be fully verbalized, does not allow complete exteriorization, and may be unconscious. However, it should not be identified with the unconscious: if implicit knowledge is used to understand what is currently in the center of attention of the cognizing subject, it is conscious to a certain extent. Implicit knowledge is formed depending on the personal characteristics of a person and is transmitted outside the standard channels of information through personal contact using ostensive definitions.
Implicit knowledge is used by a person not only in the practice of everyday life, where it appears in the form of skills, abilities, professional automatisms, but also in research activities. If the content of scientific theories and programs can be presented to a large extent as explicit knowledge, then the prerequisites for scientific research activity are essentially the beliefs of scientists and cannot be expressed in logically articulated terms. The processes of scientific research are a special art, transmitted and inherited through the direct communication of scientists within the framework of scientific schools, i.e. collectives united by a common style of thinking, a research paradigm, a system of "normative beliefs".
The development of science, according to Polanyi, occurs primarily as an expansion of the field of implicit knowledge, only part of which falls into the focus of research attention and is transformed into explicit knowledge. Science, like the individual, always knows more than it is able to say about its knowledge; however, it is precisely this "excess" that is the basis of its productive development. Implicit knowledge is personal in nature, depends on the emotions, predilections, preferences of the subject. It determines the specifics of understanding, understanding the meaning of scientific terms, their substantive meaning. Therefore, the terms and judgments of science reveal their meaning only in the context (social, cultural, socio-psychological). Implicit knowledge is contained even in logical conclusions, which therefore cannot be fully formalized.
The presence of implicit knowledge and its decisive role in the development of science are counterarguments against the idea of a rational reconstruction of the history of science. According to Polanyi, the role of methodological research and scientific reasoning programs in the philosophy of science is greatly exaggerated, since neither the acceptance of scientific theories nor their rejection can be explained by purely rational procedures, e.g. such as verification and falsification, but stem from the presence or absence of a scientist's trust in the non-explicated premises of scientific work, in the authority of leaders. Such an interpretation of knowledge and methods of its evaluation in science caused criticism from the “critical rationalists” (for example, I. Lakatos), but was supported by supporters of the “historical” direction in the philosophy of science (S. Tulmin, P. Feyerabend, T. Kuhn) who tried to expand the concept of "scientific rationality" by including philosophical, historical, scientific and sociocultural components.
V. N. Porus
New Philosophical Encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Huseynov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Thought, 2010, vol.IV, p. 504-505.
Literature:
Polanyi M. Personal knowledge. Towards a post-critical philosophy. M., 1985; Smirnova N. M. Theoretical-cognitive concept of M. Polanyi.- "VF", 1986, No. 2.