UNFORMULABLE PRACTICES?

Abstract

This essay proposes an argument that supports a pragmatic standpoint in relation to sociological description and theorization. The argument is based on a Wittgensteinian approach to human action and tacit knowledge. Taking as a starting point a controversy concerning the role of language in social practices, it is argued that the whole idea of tacit knowledge, in the sense of in principle unformulable knowledge, is based on a misconception of the nature of description. Theorizing or describing a practice is best conceived as a translation from one social practice to another. Thus, formulability can only be comprehended as a relation between two practices, not as a general characteristic of a practice. The quality of a description, or theory, is dependent on the use one tries to make of it within another practice.