Å tenke med Polanyis kunst- og kunnskapsfilosofi

Om kroppslighetens plass og det språkutviklende potensiale i verdensorientert litteraturundervisning

Abstract

Taking the Hungarian scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi’s theoretical framework as a point of departure, this article investigates how the language promoting and developing potential of metaphors may be utilized in classroom teaching. Polanyi sees the metaphorical expressions in poetry and art, and in general the imagination’s ability to synthesize the otherwise ambiguous and chaotic elements of life, as equally valid modes of knowledge as those of science. His most important discovery is the structure of tacit knowing. This structure is described as a “from-to knowing”. By this Polanyi means that what we have in focal awareness, as in a metaphorical expression or an artwork, always bears upon something we are “only” subsidiarily aware of, as for example the tacit understanding of the semiotics, bodily sensations, life-world experiences or historical and theoretical facts. This article investigates three aspects of “from-to knowing” as embodied in art: the functional, the phenomenal and the semantic. The ontological aspect is inferred from these three. Through empirical studies of how teachers and senior college students in upper secondary Nordic classrooms attribute values to metaphors and artworks, the article investigates how the concepts of Polanyi reveal the language learning potential specifically of literature, in “real” teaching and learning contexts. Polanyi´s viewpoints on intentionality, “being in the world” and embodiment intersect with views expressed by other phenomenologists. However, we find that Polanyi´s unique contribution to phenomenology in general, and literature education specifically, is that it gives profound insights into the structure of intentionality that is particularly helpful in making us understand the complexity of levels at work in literature.