{"id":29153,"date":"2022-10-19T08:59:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T15:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29153"},"modified":"2022-10-19T08:59:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T15:59:32","slug":"you-know-nothing-jon-snow-especially-if-youre-just-reading-a-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/you-know-nothing-jon-snow-especially-if-youre-just-reading-a-book\/","title":{"rendered":"You Know Nothing, Jon Snow. Especially If You’re Just Reading a Book!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes minuscule resources have the most significant impact.\u00a0<\/span>The Enchiridion<\/span><\/em>\u00a0of Epictetus is only 34 pages long but continues to shape our understanding of Stoic philosophy. Thomas Paine\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Common Sense<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is only a 47-page pamphlet but shaped the concept of American liberty. Luther\u2019s world-altering\u00a0<\/span>95 Thesis<\/span><\/em>\u00a0can be read in less than 30 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Add to this list Michael Polanyi\u2019s The Tacit Dimension, a philosophical look into the concept of tacit learning, tradition, inherited practices, implied values, and bias as it relates to scientific knowledge. In a sense, the Hungarian-British philosopher explored the idea that not all knowledge is a matter of discovering it through a logical or mechanical process. \u201cI shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell. This fact seems obvious enough; but it is not as easy to say exactly what it means,\u201d argued Polanyi.<\/span>[1]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can knowledge be separated from personal judgments, experience, emotion, expertise, and functional application? It is nearly impossible to attain knowledge without the prerequisite personal experiences and wisdom we bring to the learning process.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a sense, Polayni was arguing for recognizing the implicit and explicit cognitions that shape our learning experience, understanding, and application. An unconscious or implicit bias is an unconscious association about a person, thing, or group caused by our brain\u2019s mental shortcuts. Conscious or explicit bias is an awareness of one\u2019s belief about a person, thing, or group. In other words, I clearly understand my feelings, attitudes, and ideas on certain things.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about it this way. You are most likely familiar with your home and could go through it blindfolded. But, on the other hand, you are probably less or utterly unaware of how the house was made, what\u2019s going on behind the drywall, and where the plumbing runs.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychology and cognitive science help us understand that we all have certain assumptions, prejudices, stereotypes, judgments, and predispositions that unconsciously shape how we see others, the world, and ourselves.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This takes us back to Agarwal, who calls this \u201cSystem 1,\u201d the primarily involuntary and independent of working memory, \u201cwhich means we do not have time to experience our cognitive rational thinking. It is rapid, more subjective, value, context, and domain-specific.\u201d<\/span>[i]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Our unconscious bias is continuously shaped by experience, background, culture, and specified religious orientation. Without realizing it, these things shape our beliefs, opinions, values, and thinking. On the other hand, \u201cSystem 2 is more rational and logical. It is mostly voluntary processing of information, detached from emotions and more controlled.\u201d[2]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Polanyi also argued that it is challenging to pass along tacit knowledge as it is better attained through experience. The personal exchanges you have with others, the touch and feel of work, and the motion of going through experience and conflict, all shape the tacit knowledge we have attained. In a sense, learning is a communal experience.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we contemplate leadership, especially going back to Bolsinger\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Tempered Resilience<\/em>, can leaders truly become influential leaders by reading all the right books and writing on their gained explicit knowledge? No.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can leaders fully understand the dynamics of challenge and change without actually experiencing it tacitly? No.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leadership must be experienced and processed through many contexts, relationships, and capacities. Or, as Polanyi wrote, \u201cWe have seen that tacit knowledge dwells in our awareness of particulars while bearing on an entity which the particulars jointly constitute. In order to share this indwelling, the pupil must presume that a teaching which appears meaningless to start with has in fact a meaning which can be discovered by hitting on the same kind of indwelling as the teacher is practicing. Such an effort is based on accepting the teaching\u2019s authority.\u201d[3]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Michael Polanyi, and Amartya Sen.\u00a0<\/span>The Tacit Dimension<\/span><\/em>. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Pragya Agarwal,\u00a0<\/span>Sway (<\/span><\/em>London: Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020), 29.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ibid, Polanyi, 61.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes minuscule resources have the most significant impact.\u00a0The Enchiridion\u00a0of Epictetus is only 34 pages long but continues to shape our understanding of Stoic philosophy. Thomas Paine\u2019s\u00a0Common Sense\u00a0is only a 47-page pamphlet but shaped the concept of American liberty. Luther\u2019s world-altering\u00a095 Thesis\u00a0can be read in less than 30 minutes. \u00a0 Add to this list Michael Polanyi\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2401,2400,2397,2399],"class_list":["post-29153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-experience","tag-explicit-knowledge","tag-michael-polanyi","tag-tacit-knowledge","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29154,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29153\/revisions\/29154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}