4 ms·
> Techne is universal knowledge: things like the boiling point of water, Pythagoras’ theorem, the rule that all RPCs should have deadlines, or that we should pr
by anotha1 5y ago
> Techne is universal knowledge: things like the boiling point of water, Pythagoras’ theorem, the rule that all RPCs should have deadlines, or that we should probably alert if no instances of our jobs are running.
> metis, is local, specific, and practical. It’s won from experience. It can’t be codified in the same way that techne can. The comparison that Scott gives is between navigation and piloting. Deepwater navigation is a general skill, but a pilot knows a specific port — a ‘local and situated knowledge,’ as Scott puts it, including tides, currents, seasonal changes, shifting sandbars, and wind patterns. A pilot cannot move to another port and expect to have the same level of skill and local knowledge.
- rwtwe 5y agoIt might be worth noting that we don't need to rely on this particular book as a source for this distinction. It is essentially congruent with the necessary/contingent distinction in philosophy. Other expressions of it include the strategy/tactics distinction and the nomothetic/idiographic distinction. The idea is based on the very ancient observation that phenomena involve both general laws and specific circumstances.