Understanding Polanyi, Ourselves and Our Understanding
Channel: Math 4 Wisdom
Date: 2023-12-01

Aslam Kakar presents "Understanding Ourselves" in Michael Polanyi's book, "The Study of Man" https://archive.org/details/studyofman00pola which distinguishes tacit and explicit knowledge, and describes our understanding in terms of them.  We discuss Aslam's question, Are all minds the same? Do all minds crave understanding?

This is a meeting of the Math4Wisdom Sociology Study Group. Recorded on 2023.11.09. Join us!

1:20 Aslam: How do we know that we know? Fascinated by the title, "The Study of Man" (Human!).
3:10 Polanyi questions himself. Man's distinct capacity to think. Knowledge grows in studying it so we face a recursive challenge. Freire: unfinishedness.
6:55 Explicit (articulate, formulated, verbal, critical) vs. tacit (inarticulate, unformatulated, preverbal, acritical) knowledge. 
8:45 Tacitly we know the explicit is true. This allows us to not reflect.
9:40 Is the tacit truly knowledge? We all think but are we all thinkers?
13:50 Without language, humans are like animals. Language allows reflection, correction. Tacit includes knower, shapes knowledge, impairs but doesn't invalidate. Dominates.
17:15 Tacit applies in middle level of knowledge. Explicit allows critical reflection.
22:10 Residual flaw - bias from human participation.
23:15 Andrius: tacit - how to ride a bike vs. explicit - angular momentum.
24:30 Humans prefer articulating knowledge.
27:10 Explorer creates map (of tacit), traveler uses (explicit) map. Production more valuable than outcome. Unformulated grounds articulate.
29:40 Genius combines originality of youth, experience of maturity.
32:30 Understanding: tacit interprets explicit.
34:20 Distinguishes awareness: focal and subsidiary. Focus on something, it ultimately loses meaning.
35:50 Andrius: Gestalt psychology: whole is more than sum of parts. Articulate mind organizes components of knowledge. Tacit mind provides experiential input. They work together but can fail. 
37:40 Andrius: Polanyi tells reductionists: Machine has purpose apart from physics.
39:30 Andrius: Unconscious (tacit), Conscious (explicit), Consciousness (understanding). We empathize in understanding.
40:40 Polanyi's reason is circuitous. Book starts with "Understanding Ourselves". Focal and subsidiary are intertwined. Alert minds discover.
43:30 Are all minds the same? Do all minds have the craving for understanding? Is tacit knowledge a given? or conditional?
45:15 Edmundas Kulikauskas: Where does the soul fit into this? Have apes been taught human language? 
49:00 Christer Nylander: Electromagnetic soul. Arthur Reber explains we evolved subconsciously. 
52:05 Samuel Hutchens: We're made of tacit knowledge, but we didn't create it, nor ourselves. Soul question makes this explicit. We know we exist, not why, what motivated our cells to come together. 
54:30 Kirby Urner: Tacit seems unconscious, for granted, unquestioned, not falsifiable. We think we share assumptions but upon articulation we don't.
56:50 Brent Shambaugh: When do you acquire tacit knowledge? Investigation may confirm intuition. 
58:00 Andrius:  Love supports stepping in and out, thus consciousness. We could talk to fish.
1:10:55 Christer: Humanity is creative but stupid. Without wisdom, our solutions won't succeed.
1:12:30 Aslam: Do we mean the same by wisdom? 
1:13:25 Christer: Wisdom is context based. Ability to foresee and act in favorable ways.
1:14:00 Samuel: Wisdom doesn't need map. Migrating birds. Go the direction we want. Do rather than talk. Stored in body, not just mind.
1:16:30 Kirby: Koko the gorilla learned sign language. John Lilly took LSD to telepathically talk with dolphins.
1:20:15 Christer: Our wisdom network transcends us.
1:21:00 Bill: Entropy helped consciousness evolve.
1:21:55 Andrius: What questions should we study? Wisdom through being-doing-thinking.
1:24:40 Aslam: Are all minds the same at the tacit and explicit level? Do all minds have the same craving for understanding?
1:27:55 Kirby live blog https://controlroom.blogspot.com/2023/11/m4w-sociology-and-trucking.html How could projects fit together?  Sensitivity as we travel.
1:30:40 Econet. Dialogue. M4W culture: "I" not "We"
1:36:20 Samuel: Open Value Network.
1:38:50 Samuel: Are there legitimate roles for psychedelics to explore the subconscious? Debating in different states of mind. Kirby: What works for detox? Should one drink the kooch? 
1:43:50 Andrius: Empathizing with the spirit of empathy. 

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