Based On Comparison Of Polanyi And Zhuangzi, Theory Of Tacit Knowledge Under The Science Creation

Michael Polanyi, known as a famous scientific Philosopher, was engaged inphysics and chemical research in his early research. After that he transferred to SSKfield. He obtained many renowned achievements and gained great reputation after hepublished the book"Personal Knowledge"in 1958. This book systematicallyinterpreted the theory of tacit knowledge and proposed the conception of the tacitknowledge theory for the first time. Afterwards, Polanyi published many books,which further developed the theory of tacit knowledge and gradually establishedsystematical philosophy of tacit cognition. The tacit knowledge theory had asignificant impact on the traditional scientific epistemology. Furthermore, somescholars even pointed out that Polanyi's tacit cognition is the third revolution in thehistory of epistemology after Descartes and Kant. Polanyi's theory of tacit knowledgewas thought to exert irreversible impact on traditional scientific epistemology andhave more profound significance than paraphrase theory, linguistic philosophy andgenetic epistemology. Polanyi pointed out that knowledge is made of tacit knowledgeand explicit knowledge, but tacit knowledge is of the more articulate logical priority.From the human body, mind, Polanyi had analyzed the tacit knowledge and ProposedTrinity tacit cognition model structure, in order to highlight the personal nature oftacit knowledge.Parallelly, Zhuangzi , the most outstanding master in tacit cognition in Chinaproposed that "knowledge just only can been recognized, not been explained inlanguage". For explicit knowledge, language, gestures etc are expressional forms, butpractices is orientated of theory of tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is onlyobjective knowledge; however, Dao can be received through tacit cognition.Being a basic way of universal understanding, theory of tacit knowledge has nodifference between western and eastern worlds or liberation and science fields. In pastdecades, there were a lot of researches who studied the philosophy works of Zhuangzi,whereas we can seldom find relevant studies compared on Zhuangzi's and Polanyi'stheory of tacit knowledge, which means it hasn't arouse enough attention yet. Theoryof tacit knowledge is related to intuition, imagination and inspiration, which exist inscience research. Thus, how to inherit and develop the essence of theory of tacitknowledge and point out the disadvantage and weakness education and science research in China is one of the most important and urgent task in the philosophydomain for us. To minimize his gap, this thesis tried to probe into this field from thefollowing aspects:Firstly, on the basis of a sound analysis on the development and characteristics ofPolanyi's theory, the research on it in China was classified into three stages in thispaper: cold-start phase, new development phase and boom phase. The issue of'being'was raised by summarizing the characteristics of its development.Secondly, a comparative study between Polanyi's and Zhuangzi's tacit cognitionin terms of philosophic concept, ideology and methodologies. The comparisonindicates the similarities and differences between them and the necessity andpossibility of theory complement on the base of ascending the history of theory oftacit knowledge.Thirdly, the relation between science creation and theory of tacit knowledge wasanalyzed. From science epistemological point of view, the tacit factors such as thebeauty of science, the intuitive thinking, and the aesthetic reasoning involved duringthe course of science creation were elaborated by taking advantage of theoriesrelevant to creatology. With typical cases in the history of science, during the courseof tacit cognitive theory promoting science creation, the inside mechanism wasanalyzed and explained.Fourthly, in science research and education fields, Ignoring, avoiding and evenexcluding tacit cognition still exist in China. The theory of tacit knowledge wasdeemed to be deviated from science creation. Under such situation, this paperprovides pertinent advices for promoting the reflection and reconstruction of thepresent science research and education theory and the basis of Practical Epistemologyin China.The innovation spots of this thesis are as follows:Firstly, a comparative study between Polanyi's and Zhuangzi's tacit of tacitknowledge in terms of philosophic concept, ideology and methodologies wasprovided. Based on that, the syncretism of Chinese culture and western culture,ancient and Modern were put forward. Today, there are a lot of researches talkingabout tacit cognition, but obvious comparative study is still in scarcity. This thesisfirstly probes into this field on the basis of through analysis of Polanyi andZhuangzi's theory.Secondly, based on theoretical analysis and case study, the relation between Abstractscience creation Thinking and tacit cognition was systematically discussed andpointed out the influence which tacit knowledge exerts in science research creation.Thirdly, in this thesis, pertinent suggestions and countermeasures were putforward in order to promote the development of theory of tacit knowledge exertingmuch more positive influence in the science research and education domain. Thisthesis validates the great significance of theory of tacit knowledge during the courseof science creation and suggests fostering it in terms of thinking pattern, knowledgestructure and reforming the mechanism in science research and education.