Tacitus' project

Tacitus’ research starts with the philosopher Richard Rorty, an advocate of relativism. Rorty believes that knowledge is culturally constructed rather than universally true. (Is that true? Really?)

Tacitus disagrees with Rorty. Tacitus thinks that science, as well as other disciplines such as theology, morality and aesthetics, can all make truth claims. But no claims to truth escape the fact that we are always and inevitably caught up in the very world that we want to know about.

The implication of this is that all knowing is a circular process—an interpretive process. But it’s not a vicious circle. If you enjoy the technical jargon, Tacitus' research is largely about hermeneutics.

Tacitus is attracted by the Continental philosophical tradition which challenges the error of seeing and talking about the world in terms of distinct subjects and objects. The problem with that idea is that it assumes we can separate ourselves from ‘the world’.

Tacitus is also attracted to analyses of science that question the ideals of certainty and proof. These ideals don’t hold philosophical water and they lead to a view that only science is on about truth.

But Tacitus is not a relativist about scientific knowledge. For example, Tacitus believes there is good reason to think that human activity causes climate change. But that doesn’t mean we can expect final proof or certainty in the matter.

So, in the face of Rorty's relativism, Tacitus wants to say that in both science and 'non-science', we arrive at knowledge in a similar way, a hermeneutic way. And part of that knowledge lies beyond explicit explanation. It is tacit knowledge. For an example of tacit knowledge, just think of how you recognized your mother’s face long before you could talk.

You may have heard echoes above of the voices of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Michael Polanyi. Tacitus is pretty keen on them. Gadamer was a philosopher who wrote about truth in the human sciences. Polanyi was a scientist who turned to philosophy of science because he was concerned about the way so called scientific knowledge was misunderstood.

Do Gadamer and Polanyi have the resources to take on Rorty? If we go on feeding Tacitus honey sandwiches for the next year or two then he/she will finish his/her research and we might know the answer.