The Tacit Dimension

An authority in physical chemistry, as well as in economics and social science, Michael Polanyi held the view, We can know more than we can tell. He termed this pre-logical phase tacit knowledge a range of conceptual and sensory information and images that can be explored while trying to make sense of something. This kind of knowledge incorporated so much embedded learning that its rules were impossible to separate or reproduce in a document. It normally could not be verbalized but rather demonstrated and imitated. Nor could tacit knowledge be formalized as it included tradition and inherited practices; it implied values, and pre-judgments; yet it nonetheless formed a crucial part of scientific knowledge.