Practical Action: Polanyi, Hacking, Heidegger and the Tacit Dimension

This is a book about knowledge and will consider that which we do not explicitly know. It will explain aspects of our everyday experience that may appear inexplicable for, as Michael Polanyi would argue, a wholly explicit knowledge is unthinkable. It is an investigation and exploration into the implications of the tacit component of knowledge. All knowledge has a tacit dimension which allows one to move beyond the Cartesian paradigm in epistemology and provides a foundational structure for understanding. In short, to know is to do. Tacit knowledge is comprised of practical and applicable knowledge - the type of knowing that is based on skills, a shared community of tradition and the intersubjective relationship to the other. This text will also engage in a theoretical and practical dialogue about the important roles that mentorship and ?elbow knowledge? play in all relationships, including the focal and subsidiary aspects of it. By examining specific practical actions it will become clear that tacit knowledge and skill must be inextricably linked together.