The Roots of Tacit Knowledge: Intuitive and Personal Judgment in Polanyi’s Early Writings (1939-1946)

Polanyi says that the concept of tacit knowledge is “necessarily fraught with the roots that it embodies” (TD, xviii). This paper demonstrates that these roots can be seen in Polanyi’s early writings between 1939 and 1946. In particular, the concepts of “intuitive judgment” and “personal judgment” have some peculiar features that flow subsequently into the idea of tacit knowledge. In this regard, they can be considered ancestors of Polanyi’s best-known concept. In the present paper, I propose a historical reconstruction of the two concepts. In particular, I focus on the problems from which they stem, namely Polanyi’s criticism of research planning and his account on the functioning of science and its institutional and social arrangement. Besides this historical reconstruction, I draw a comparison between the concept of tacit knowledge and its early predecessors.

Misperception of Exponential Growth: Are People Aware of Their Errors?

Previous research shows that individuals make systematic errors when judging exponential growth, which has harmful effects for their financial well-being. This study analyzes how far individuals are aware of their errors and how these errors are shaped by arithmetic and conceptual problems. Whereas arithmetic problems could be overcome using computational assistance like a pocket calculator, this is not the case for conceptual problems, a term we use to subsume other error drivers like a general misunderstanding of exponential growth or overwhelming task complexity. In an incentivized experiment, we find that participants strongly overestimate the accuracy of their intuitive judgment. At the same time, their willingness to pay for arithmetic assistance is too high on average, often much above the actual benefits a calculator provides. Using a multitier system of task complexity we can show that the willingness to pay for arithmetic assistance is hardly related to its benefits, indicating that participants do not really understand how the interplay of arithmetic and conceptual problems shape their errors in exponential growth tasks. Our findings are relevant for policymaking and financial advisory practice and can help to design effective approaches to mitigate the detrimental effects of misperceived exponential growth.

Scaffolding Intuitive Rationality

In this chapter, I articulate a category of rational intuitive inference that stands between the simplest forms of association and the most complex forms of deductive reasoning. I focus especially on how intuitive inferences can be scaffolded up through successive levels of abstraction to more stimulus-independent forms of judgment that look (from the outside, at least) like paradigm instances of reasoning. Such abstraction can, I argue, lead to thoughts that are “unsaturated” in the Fregean sense, with abstract “slots” into which individuals must be fit for the thought to be complete. Finally, I consider whether such abstraction can achieve the formal, validity-preserving forms of inference familiar from symbolic logic, arguing that the psychology of intuitive judgment should respect older Fregean lessons about the border between psychology and logic.

Emptiness and the Eight Consciousnesses: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Intuitive Judgment

This paper empirically investigates whether emptiness (according to the Madhyamaka school) has a positive association with the intuitive judgment that results from the eight consciousnesses (according to the Vijnanavada school). A questionnaire-based quantitative approach was used to collect data from 157 professional spirit mediums. The results show that emptiness is significantly correlated with pure brightness and that pure brightness is, in turn, is significantly associated with intuitive judgment. Therefore, this paper argues that emptiness can improve or enhance the eight consciousnesses in making moral decisions. Finally, for the gap between moral judgment and action, this research provides new insight by asserting that this gap must have existed a priori.

MATLAB GUI-Based Lifting Optimization Decision System for Multiple-Lifts-Single-Crane

Combined with powerful mathematical capability of MATLAB and the excellent interfacial design function of GUIDE, a lifting optimization decision system for multiple-lifts-single-crane is proposed which is feasible in electrical equipment lifting tasks. Based on existing approaches, a novel algorithm is proposed for selecting appropriate cranes and determining their corresponding optimum locations, resulting a lifting optimization system. This system can minimize the number of crane locations on the premise of avoiding potential spatial conflicts. To investigate its performance, a case example is conducted. It is demonstrated that the utility of this system for multiple-lifts-single-crane lifting tasks which also allow users have a deeper intuitive judgment to the lifting process.