Study of the dimension of tacit knowledge in action and cognition

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1. We started our investigation of tacit knowledge in various areas and recognized that the root of the problem resides in the framework of traditional representational theory of knowledge (TRTK) itself. That forced us to criticize and reconstruct the framework in two main regions, so that we carried out (1) research of the universal structure of the phenomena of knowledge and (2) analyzes of their more concrete and historical aspects.2. (1) Shibata, clarifying that TRTK has a critical defect in the static concept of knowledge as "belief=representation", proposed an alternative idea of knowledge as a relational concept and knowledge as a causal concept. Todayama made it clear that knowledge has a dimension which can be correctly grasped by the concept of information and suggested a naturalistic theory of knowledge based on the informational stance. Osawa, pointing at the fallacy of epistemological individualism of TRTK,developed an idea that knowledge should be ascribed to a network of semantically united (mutual-interpretative) community. Morigiwa critically synthesized these three proposals and put forth a new image of knowledge as self-organizing and self-preserving activity of life systems surviving natural selection. (2) Yokoyama, searching for a dimension of tacit knowledge in computer simulation employed in the study of artificial knowledge and life, showed a novel mode of knowledge realized as computational knowledge. Tamura followed up the historical development of TRTK and concluded that the foundation of knowledge consists not in the so called sense-data but the product of experimental technique at work in the tacit dimension of scientific inquiry. Bessho, starting from the examination of Polanyi's idea of tacit knowledge, clarified that tacit knowledge can also be a ground of freedom of individuals living within a historical community.