Clinical Judgment, Tacit Knowledge, and Recognition in Psychiatric Diagnosis

Author(s):  
Tim Thornton

This chapter contrasts the recent emphasis on operationalism as the route to reliability in psychiatry with arguments for an ineliminable role for tacit knowledge. Although Michael Polanyi popularized the idea of tacit dimension, the chapter argues that two clues he offers as to its nature-that we know more than we can tell and that knowledge is an active comprehension of things known-are better interpreted through regress arguments set out by Ryle and Wittgenstein. Those arguments, however, suggest that tacit knowledge is not inexpressible but merely inexpressible in context-free terms. The chapter suggests instead that tacit knowledge is best understood to be context-dependent practical knowledge. So understood, the regress arguments suggest that the operational approach to psychiatric diagnosis can never free itself from a tacit dimension. Given that claim, then Parnas' opposing view of diagnosis can be seen as a way to embrace, rather than deny, the importance of tacit knowledge and skilled clinical judgment for psychiatry.

2021 ◽  

In architecture, tacit knowledge plays a substantial role in both the design process and its reception. The essays in this book explore the tacit dimension of architecture in its aesthetic, material, cultural, design-based, and reflexive understanding of what we build. Tacit knowledge, described in 1966 by Michael Polanyi as what we ‘can know but cannot tell’, often denotes knowledge that escapes quantifiable dimensions of research. Much of architecture’s knowledge resides beneath the surface, in nonverbal instruments such as drawings and models that articulate the spatial imagination of the design process. Awareness of the tacit dimension helps to understand the many facets of the spaces we inhabit, from the ideas of the architect to the more hidden assumptions of our cultures. Beginning in the studio, where students are guided into becoming architects, the book follows a path through the tacit knowledge present in materials, conceptual structures, and the design process, revealing how the tacit dimension leads to craftsmanship and the situated knowledge of architecture-in-the-world.


1970 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 255-278
Author(s):  
John Gray

'For our house is our corner of the world ... it is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word.' Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space 'We know more than we can tell.' Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension The epigraphs encapsulate the two major themes of this paper. As Bachelard's quotation suggests, Chhetri houses are not simply functional places for everyday living. Instead, the house and its surrounding compound are also an encompassing cosmos in which Chhetris of the Kathmandu Valley dwell and come to understand its fundamental principles.1 In their everyday activities of preparing, cooking and eating rice, Chhetri Householders spatially configure their domestic compounds into mandalas-sacred diagrams that are simultaneously maps of the cosmos and machines for revealing the truth of cosmos as a fundamental unity. At the same time, such everyday dwelling in a domestic mandalas is productive of knowledge of the cosmos they represent. DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3040 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 255-278


2021 ◽  

Within architecture, tacit knowledge plays a substantial role both within the design process and its reception. This book explores the tacit dimension of architecture in its aesthetic, material, cultural, design-based, and reflexive understanding of what we build. Much of architecture’s knowledge resides beneath the surface, in nonverbal instruments such as drawings and models that articulate the spatial imagination of the design process. Tacit knowledge, described in 1966 by Michael Polanyi as what we ‘can know but cannot tell’, often denotes knowledge that escapes quantifiable dimensions of research. Beginning in the studio, where students are guided into becoming architects, the book follows a path through the tacit knowledge present in models, materials, conceptual structures, and the design process, revealing how the tacit dimension leads to craftsmanship and the situated knowledge of architecture-in-the-world. Awareness of the tacit dimension helps to understand the many facets of the spaces we inhabit, from the ideas of the architect to the more hidden assumptions of our cultures.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Ihuoma Oluikpe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge processes that interplay in the social construction and appropriation of knowledge and to test these constructs empirically in project teams. Design/methodology/approach – Literature research and quantitative survey were used. The research identified project success, faster completion times, operational efficiency, innovation and generation of new knowledge as dominating project management expectations in the past ten years. It studied how these projects construct and appropriate knowledge within project teams to achieve these five objectives. Using a quantitative approach, data were sought from 1,000 respondents out of a population of 10,000 from 11 project management areas in eight world regions to test the conceptual model in real-world scenarios. The data gathered were analyzed using quantitative analysis tools and techniques such as reliability, correlation and regression. Findings – There is a lingering difficulty within organizations on how to translate tacit knowledge into action. The transfer and utilization of tacit knowledge was shown to be embedded and nested within relationships. Innovation in projects was found to be mostly linked to replication and codification of knowledge (explicit dimension) as opposed to interpretation and assimilation (tacit dimension). Arriving at a mutual interpretation of project details and requirements does not depend on canonical (formal documentation) methods but mostly on non-canonical (informal) and relational processes embedded within the team. Originality/value – This work studies, in empirical and geographical detail, the social interplay of knowledge and provided evidence relative to the appropriation of knowledge in the project organizational form, which can be extrapolated to wider contexts. The work scoped the inter-relational nature of knowledge and provided further evidence on the nebulous nature of tacit/intangible knowledge. It also proved further that organizations mostly rely on explicit knowledge to drive organizational results, as it is easily actionable and measurable.


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Janik

Drastic changes in professional education have led to a need to emphasize that education must be a matter of life-long learning. About this there can be no doubt: the question is how should we conceive life-long learning. I argue on the basis of recent research in Sweden that professional knowledge is in its most crucial dimension what Michael Polanyi called ‘tacit knowledge’ and as a result that the humanities are indispensable to any concept of continuing education worth taking seriously.


1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry H. Gill

Reasoning about religion would seem to involve both explicit and tacit factors. These latter are what Pascal had in mind when he spoke of the ‘reasons of the heart which the reason knows not of’. Moreover, these reasons of the heart are the more interesting by virtue of being at least the more difficult and perhaps the more crucial. In these pages I want to examine the notion of reasons of the heart from the angle provided by the insights of Michael Polanyi. Space will not permit a review of the major features of Polanyi's crucial concept of tacit knowledge.1 I shall simply introduce and explore certain of these features as they seem relevant to the main concern of the paper. I trust this can be done in such a way as to be both meaningful to the reader and fair to Polanyi.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Hasenstab ◽  
Manuel Pietzonka

By working in different projects and different teams over years, employees acquire tacit knowledge unconsciously. It is represented through experiences and is intangible. This knowledge is embodied in our routines. Therefore, it is difficult to verbalize tacit knowledge. This paper introduces a practical approach for companies to use their tacit knowledge in order to become a learning organization. The results of a semi-standardized face-to-face-interview survey with participants (n=10) show to what extent a self-reflection can contribute to uncover and share tacit knowledge in an IT-organization. The answers of the participants were recorded, utilized, coded and analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the intervention can encourage the process of uncovering tacit knowledge. It is possible for the employees to see the past project problems from different perspectives via self-reflection. Thereby they are able to uncover the tacit dimension of their experience and gain new insights.


Author(s):  
Yawar Abbas ◽  
Alberto Martinetti ◽  
Mohammad Rajabalinejad ◽  
Lex Frunt ◽  
Leo A. M. van Dongen

Sharing of tacit knowledge is a key topic of research within the knowledge management community. Considering its embodied nature, organizations have always struggled with embedding it into their processes. Proper execution of complex processes such as system integration asks for an adequate sharing of tacit knowledge. Acknowledging the importance of lessons learned for system integration and their presence in tacit and explicit form, a case study was conducted within the Netherlands Railways. It was determined that non-sensitivity to the tacit dimension of lessons learned has resulted in their lack of utilization. Consequently, LEAF framework was developed, where LEAF stands for learnability, embraceability, applicability, and findability. The framework suggests that addressing these four features collectively can eventually lead to an adequate knowledge-sharing strategy for lessons learned. Lastly, the chapter presents an example from the Netherlands Railways to emphasize the key role technological solutions of Industry 4.0 can play in facilitating tacit knowledge sharing.


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