Knowledge: Metis Summary and Analysis Essay

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Scott suggests that the perceptions of individuals are as delicate as sensing slight differences in weight: at first the slight differences are imperceptible, but then clear to the person holding the object. However, this phenomenon cannot be predicted or described beforehand.

The ineffability of craft -- knowing when to add a pinch of this or a pinch of that to a stew -- is what is missing in rigid utopian programs. Another comparison might be studying a language academically without really having to speak it, versus the benefits of total immersion. Scott asks: What would you rather have as a guide: a sailor who knew the sea, or a map and clearly prefers the former.

Scott does not totally deny the benefits of what he calls 'techne' or skilled knowledge, versus 'Metis' or knowledge learned through practice. Techne attempts to "bracket uncertainty" by providing generalized knowledge, such as scientific theories (Scott 321). While Techne is needed when everything is being marshaled to pursue a singular goal, thus reducing extraneous variables and outside influences, a state cannot create such a controlled environment and thus cannot be governed by Techne. Yet the Soviet Union attempted to instate such a principle through "formulas of efficiency, production function, and rational actions" (Scott 323).

Ironically, today such rigid enforcement of productivity goals and rules is apt to be found, not in government, but in capitalism itself, where theories of Total Quality Management, Just-in-Time manufacturing and 'zero defect' policies mandate rigid formulas for success and controlled workplace conditions.

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Similarly, health insurance companies might set a formulaic limit on how much money a treatment for a particular illness should require, or rigidly limit the types of treatments and tests an individual can receive under a plan, based upon actuarial figures. The mania for science exists in capitalism as well as socialism: after all, it was Henry Ford who tried to reduce workers to cogs in a machine, in his assembly line approach to manufacturing. Standardization of industrial production and agriculture is also the antithesis of the 'Metis' of the craftsperson or small farmer, attuned to the unique qualities of a piece of fabric or crop.

The improvements of the field are better than the improvements of a focus group in both government and commerce. The smallpox vaccine was developed through observation of the inoculating effects of cowpox, while a seeming infinite number of medications of questionable efficacy with a multitude of side effects have been developed in the laboratories of pharmaceutical companies: the medication is 'branded' and a disease is created rather than answers a preexisting human need (Scott 326). Although Scott's observations focus on socialist societies that no longer exist, his observations are relevant to any bureaucratic….....

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