Language, Understanding, and Tacit Knowledge

**Every Sunday, a new lecture.** Our meeting starts at 9:00 AM with a friendly conversation, then a dialogue at 9:15 AM, and a Q&A discussion follows. This week, we begin with Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose Philosophical Investigations reshaped how we think about language. He argued that language isn’t a set of strict definitions—it’s something we do. Words get their meaning from how we use them in everyday life, in the “language-games” we play with one another. To understand a word is to know how it works within a shared activity. Many philosophical confusions, Wittgenstein says, arise when we pull words out of their natural contexts and expect them to behave like abstract labels. We then turn to Geoffrey Hinton’s 2025 lecture, “What Is Understanding?” Hinton explains understanding through the way artificial neural networks learn. These systems do not follow preset rules or look up definitions. They learn by changing themselves as they encounter new experiences. Over time, they form internal patterns that help them notice similarities, relationships, and context. Understanding grows as the system’s inner “map” becomes more flexible and connected—something Hinton believes is close to how the human brain learns. Finally, we explore Michael Polanyi, who argues that much of what we know cannot be put fully into words. He calls this tacit knowledge—the skills, intuitions, and subtle judgments we rely on without consciously explaining them. Riding a bike, recognizing a friend, or making a discovery all depend on this unspoken, embodied know-how. For Polanyi, understanding is rooted in this personal, experiential layer that guides how we make sense of the world. Together, these three thinkers invite us to rethink what understanding is. If meaning comes from use, if learning reshapes our inner models, and if knowledge is mostly tacit, then what exactly is understanding? Is it something we do together? Something that grows through experience? Something that emerges from patterns and relationships? And how might these ideas help us understand both human and artificial intelligence? Join Plato’s Cave and the Orlando Stoics for a discussion on language, learning, embodiment, and the deep mystery of how understanding takes shape. **READING & VIEWING MATERIALS** **Wittgenstein** **Ludwig Wittgenstein:** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein) **Philosophical Investigations:** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations) **Meaning is Use:** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(philosophy_of_language)#Wittgenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(philosophy_of_language)#Wittgenstein) **Geoffrey Hinton** **“What Is Understanding?” (IASEAI 2025):** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fvXWG9Auyg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fvXWG9Auyg) **Backpropagation experiments:** [https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~fritz/absps/bptr.pdf](https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~fritz/absps/bptr.pdf) **Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP):** [https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/absps/pdpchapter.pdf](https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/absps/pdpchapter.pdf) **Michael Polanyi** **Michael Polanyi:** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Polanyi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Polanyi) **Tacit knowledge:** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge) **Personal Knowledge:** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Knowledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Knowledge) **Lecture (first 30 min)**: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NPXKmEmIzY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NPXKmEmIzY) **TIMEZONES** For members in the United States: 6:00 AM — Pacific Time 7:00 AM — Mountain Time 8:00 AM — Central Time 9:00 AM — Eastern Time For members in other countries, please convert time using: [https://www.worldtimebuddy.com](https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/) **The meeting begins at 9:00 AM Eastern, with dialogue starting at 9:15 AM sharp.**