Ships that pass in the night

tacit knowledge in psychology and sociology

Harry Collins

Arthur Reber

pp. 135-154

in: Régis Catinaud (ed), Tacit and explicit knowledge, Philosophia Scientiae 17 (3), 2013.

Abstract

Reber and Collins are each major researchers in psychology and sociology respectively. Both focus on the analysis and investigation of tacit knowledge. Yet neither had read or cited the other’s work. Here we explore how this similarity of interest can coexist in the midst of ignorance. Over many months we explored the differences in our world views, our approaches to the topic and the difficulties of interdisciplinarity. This paper is a summary of that exchange presented as a kind of case-study in doing science. We conclude with a list of the general properties of the dialogue associated with this kind of “incommensurability” and state our distaste for tribalism in academic life.