I am coming around to the idea that the nature of tacit knowledge is sufficiently hard to pin down so that there are a few reasonable competing positions on this. A similar condition applies to the Gibson/Gregory debate and the mind/body debate.
What matters is that one´s position is made clear and the reader can either A) accept that position with or without agreeing or B) disagree wholly and stop reading.
Quite some years ago I had a paper about urban matters rejected in part because my basic position was rejected and not because I had made a hash of explaining myself**. The only way I was going meet the approval of the reviewer was to abandon my standpoint and adopt their standpoint (helpfully provided). That is a bit like asking a Marxist economist to swap the Marxism out for some Hayek or vice versa.
I mention this because I think with respect to tacit knowledge there are a few principle positions on this much as in economics there are some main standpoints. What we ought to be asking of an argument is whether the points marshalled in its favour are at least plausible and not arguing the right of the writer to take that stand point at all. In another field, economists can proceed from a Keynesian standpoint without having to justify Keynesianism before even proceeding to the point they want to make.
Having written that, I am aware of the risk of my point being seen as a get-out-of-jail-free card for people who want to hold positions of dubious merit. However, I would propose that the way to respond to plausible but contentious positions is to write a counter-argument and not, as my esteemed urban planning peer did, refuse to accept my basic position in the first place (which I hasten to add is not an issue in today´s discussion).
**the paper was eventually published (after 18) months without anyone ever noticing it!
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