Hello At
You wrote
A person's tacit knowledge is that knowledge which the person has AND which
that person SELF had never before articulated in words or expressed by any
other means. A person usually recognise his/her tacit knowledge when
ANOTHER person articulates it. But this recognition does NOT cause the
tacit knowledge of the person to emerge into formal (objective) knowledge
because the person has NOT articulated it self. The impaired essentialities
in this case which prevent the emergence are "becoming-being" (liveness)
and "identity-categoricity" (sureness).
You also wrote
But I want to give them one important reason why they should try to do it.
It is the back action of the higher order emergent (in this case formal
knowledge) on the lower substrate (in this case tacit knowledge). The
general nature of this back action is to enrich the lower order substrate.
I have once explained it in terms of learning (higher order emergent) and
creating (lower order substrate).
I am aware of the concept of tacit knowledge and the need to some how
articulate it in order for it to grow/expand/bifurcate etc. And yet I
find the practice of articulation some how difficult. Perhaps this is to
do with my background. I am an indigenous New Zealander one of a family
of 13 born into poverty. We had honest hard working parents who gave us a
good start in life by way of education. My childhood years were
relatively happy, we lived on a block of tribal land on the sea shore, it
was fertile and sea food was plentiful. I knew from my earliest years
that the block of land we subsisted on was a minute part of that which my
forebears roamed freely upon. The majority of this land was confiscated
by the British following their defeat at the Battle of Gate Pa. Superior
arms and numbers meant the battle was won but the war was lost. By the
time I was born (1948) the Maori people had also lost much of their pride
and though recognizing tacit knowledge and with unimpaired
"becoming-being" (liveness) and "identity-categoricity" (sureness) were
not able to collectively teach a deaf audience..
In the context of "How does a Nation learn", I believe that our tiny
nation did learn. Not without some bitter confrontation between the
government and the Maori people though. The most bitter and probably the
changing point in government thinking was the 1981 South African Rugby
tour to New Zealand. That event stunned and divided the country.
Activist Maori groups used it fully to further the fight for justice.
Never before had we seen such violence in our streets. Never was opinion
so divided. I believe that it was this event that finally convinced the
government that a process to right the wrongs of the past was desperately
needed. Prior to full colonization my forebears were agriculturists,
fishermen and hunters. Today, years after having our economic base - the
land - forcibly taken, many Maori exist on welfare hand outs from the
government. A generation of indigenous New Zealanders has lost it's
spiritual link to "the land the sea and the sky". Yet for the past 10
years the Treaty of Waitangi, the document signed by many Maori Chiefs and
the "Crown" in 1840 is slowly but surely being written into our
constitution. Case law based on the treaty is increasing and giving
substance to it. Some Maori Activists who 30 years ago were deemed to be
at the leading edge of extremism are now respected members of New Zealand
society. And for some the process is too slow so they now become the
leading edge of Maori extremism. Hopefully the process will sufficiently
satisfy all New Zealanders enough to enable "all" of us to focus on
building the future for New Zealand. I am keeping a close watch on the
seven essentialities postings as well. When I get a sufficient
understanding of them I will look at our direction in terms of it
satisfying all seven of them.
Seemingly what we still have to learn pales into insignificance against
the problems faced by South Africa, Russia, Yugoslavia Indonesia and many
more. And there is no guarantee that we will escape, what is going on now
in many countries, in our future. The 1981 Springbok tour allowed us to
see the depths to which our hatred can go.
At, I have had contact with South African people since early childhood as
they immigrated to New Zealand. I now work with them and associate with
them in community organizations. There seems to be a gulf between how
they and I think. I have met a few second generations South African New
Zealanders, those who came here as very young children or were born here.
I am happy to say I relate to them the same way as I do with our own young
people. The youngest of our 4 daughters is an exchange student in South
Africa and is being hosted by a family in Capetown. We were not
particularly pleased that she had picked South Africa as the country she
wished to spend her year as an exchange student but she had set her heart
on going there. She has been there for almost three months now and is
thoroughly enjoying herself.
I'm glad you are over the worst of your illness, I do enjoy your postings,
Regards,
Dennis Rolleston
--Dennis Rolleston <Dennisr@ps.gen.nz>
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