{"id":29165,"date":"2022-10-20T10:48:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T17:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29165"},"modified":"2022-10-20T10:48:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T17:48:08","slug":"polanyi-says-i-know-more-than-i-can-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/polanyi-says-i-know-more-than-i-can-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"Polanyi Says I Know More Than I Can Tell"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Michael Polanyi\u2019s thin yet dense philosophic work \u201cThe Tacit Dimension,\u201d he discusses human knowledge, the scientific method, and how we discover objective truth. Let\u2019s start with the definition of tacit:<\/em> \u201cunderstood or implied without being stated.\u201d This is the guiding principle for his book and he goes on to argue that, \u201cwe can know more than we can tell\u201d (p.4). As an example of what he means by this, he illustrates that an individual can recognize a picture of a friend\u2019s face, out of thousands and even millions of pictures of people he does not know. But how does this individual recognize his friends face? They would be hard pressed to explain exactly how they know. Likewise, humans know a lot more than they can describe or explain. Polanyi goes on to argue that this is also true in the world of science and philosophy, where individuals are striving to discover objective truth.<\/p>\n

The book has three sections and the first section explains his main thesis, \u201cTacit Knowing.\u201d He reaches three conclusions in this section: 1.) Tacit knowing gives us a valid knowledge of a problem, 2.) Tacit knowing guides a scientist in his pursuit of a solution, and 3.) Tacit knowing helps us anticipate implications of new discoveries (p.24). He does not believe that the human mind has to be constrained by the strict tenants of the Scientific Method. The human mind is far more complex than that. The Scientific Method is only a tool and it needs to be employed by those seeking objective truth, but the consciousness of an individual transcends that simple method. Human individuals are part of a community of belief (we can even call it faith<\/em>) that this world has been created in a rational manner and we can discover how it has been assembled. The ideal is to find an objective, impersonal truth about the universe in which we inhabit.<\/p>\n

In this section of the book, there is a parallel, albeit a narrow one, with Henri Nouwen\u2019s book, \u201cDiscernment.\u201d The similarity lies in that we are trusting in guidance that is outside of ourselves and not just a formulaic adherence to a set of rules. Polanyi argues that there is a place for implied values, inherited practices, even tradition. All of these can inform the one who is on a quest to learn and discover objective truth. With Nouwen, there is also tradition and the community of practitioners that can help guide us and provide discernment in our lives. Of course, Nouwen speaks at length of the person of the Holy Spirit that also provides discernment, so the similarity only goes so far. It is interesting to note the similarities in the goals: to know objective truth. The Christian can confidently say that they have come to know God: his ways, purposes, even his personality. For Polanyi, he speaks of knowing more about our physical world. The construction of a building was one of his better examples. The brick layer knows his craft and can build a house. The architect has his own sphere of knowledge and can design the building. The city planner also plays his part by enforcing codes and rules that buildings must adhere to. All three are experts in their field and have specialized knowledge.<\/p>\n

The second section is called Emergence<\/em>. Here Polanyi argues that established scientific facts and principles imply further facts and principles. New discoveries emerge<\/em> from old discoveries and these new discoveries provide us with metaphysical realities about the human mind. It is an ongoing arc of learning that leads to an ever-deepening awareness of ourselves, not just the object we are studying. This is the most interesting part of the book. Polanyi is saying that the scientist who is studying chemistry, or biology, or astronomy not only learns about each of those subjects, but about the nature of learning itself and indeed about the human mind. I would take it one step further and say we can learn about the very mind of God when we study these subjects. He is the one who created the cosmos, so when we learn about the cosmos, we are learning about the very mind of God. God speaks in Isaiah 66:2, \u201cHas not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?\u201d<\/p>\n

The third and final section is A Society of Explorers.<\/em> Here Polanyi asks the question, \u201cCan intellectual powers . . . exercise the kind of responsible judgment which we must claim if we are to attribute a moral sense to man?\u201d It is a necessary question, even for an atheistic scientist. What will humans do with all this learning? There are implications here for Artificial Intelligence and how the use of AI knowledge will be policed in the future. The inescapable truths about the darkness of the human heart must be addressed in this context. There are no simple answers but safeguards must be put into place or our clever technologies will be our undoing.<\/p>\n

This book was not an easy read and at times the author\u2019s prose was unnecessarily formalistic. I admire Polanyi\u2019s search for truth and his dedication to ongoing learning. When I wore younger man\u2019s clothes, I was more interested in these types of intellectual pursuits: Epistemology, philosophies of the Enlightenment, the Scholasticism of St. Thomas Aquanis. But alas, with my advancing years, practicality has taken a front seat. This book, although full of interesting distinctions, is not very practical. But reading widely and deeply expands the horizons of doctoral students\u2014and not everything has to be practical. I used Kahneman\u2019s slow thinking<\/em> method to get through this book, now it\u2019s time for some fast thinking<\/em>. After reading this book my brain hurts, so I\u2019m going to watch reruns of the American version of The Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Michael Polanyi\u2019s thin yet dense philosophic work \u201cThe Tacit Dimension,\u201d he discusses human knowledge, the scientific method, and how we discover objective truth. Let\u2019s start with the definition of tacit: \u201cunderstood or implied without being stated.\u201d This is the guiding principle for his book and he goes on to argue that, \u201cwe can know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"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":[4],"class_list":["post-29165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-polanyi","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29165","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\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29166,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29165\/revisions\/29166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}