Implizites Wissen

Polanyi examines human cognition based on the fact that we know more than we can articulate. This insight, which Gestalt psychology has primarily explored through perception, applies to all forms of theoretical and practical knowledge, starting from somatic processes to the practical skills and dexterities of a craftsman, athlete, or piano virtuoso, and extending to scientific understanding. They all share a structure that can be described as the integration of individual features into a coherent whole, but in such a way that we divert our attention from the individual features. We recognize a face by its individual traits, but in a manner that we do not focus on these individual traits. However, Polanyi finds this structure not only in the act of understanding but also in what is understood itself.