CFP: Philosophia Scientiae: Tacit and Explicit Knowledge: Harry Collins' framework

Thematic issue of Philosophia Scientiæ 17/ 3 (November 2013)

Guest Editors: Léna Soler (Nancy, France), Sjoerd D. Zwart (Delft, Netherlands) and Régis Catinaud (Nancy, France).

Submission deadline: September 1, 2012

Notification Date: January 1, 2013

 Harry Collins' decade long occupation with tacit knowledge has culminated in his monograph Tacit and Explicit Knowledge (2010). This monograph introduces and is built upon a tripartition of tacit knowledge (TK). First, Collins defines relational TK to be explicable knowledge that has not been explicated for contingent reasons related to the relation between people. Second, in contrast to Polanyi’s view, which is dominant today, Collins claims that the most famous kind, viz., somatic TK as exemplified by balancing on a bicycle, can sometime be explicated, where by ‘explicated’ we mean ‘reproduced with a machine’. After all, we already have robots that can ride bicycles. Third, according to Collins, the real hard nut to crack iscollective TK, which is knowledge “embodied in society” and related to the nature of human society. It involves flexible and creative social performances (“polimorphic actions”) and therefore, will remain tacit and inexplicable for the foreseeable future. An example is riding a bicycle in traffic or dance improvisation.

In this volume, we welcome any elaborations, accommodations and criticisms of Collins’ tripartition and its accompanying claims, especially regarding issues in science and technology. Additionally, contributionsin the light of Collins’ approach may address (but are not limited to) one of the following themes. Tacit knowledge in

• philosophical or sociological accounts of scientific enterprises such as experimentation, modeling, explanation, theory formation, theory change and evaluation, etc.
• technology and engineering, e.g., in design or in our relationship to machines
• any field of artificial intelligence
• education, especially in science and technology
• the use and acquisition of natural language 
• knowledge management such as for instance knowledge transfer between organizations

Harry Collins will introduce the special issue and will comment upon some of the specific questions being raised.

Manuscripts should be submitted in English and be prepared for anonymous peer review.

Abstracts in English (200-300 words) should be included.

Papers’ length should not exceed 7000 words.

Manuscripts should be sent to both editors: [email protected]  and  [email protected]

Guidelines for authors are to be found on the journal’s website: http://poincare.univ-nancy2.fr/PhilosophiaScientiae/Guide+for+authors/.

For further information, please contact Régis Catinaud ([email protected])