Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical PhilosophyIn this work the physical chemist and philosopher, Michael Polanyi, demonstrates that the scientist's personal participation in his knowledge, in both its discovery and its validation, is an indispensable part of science itself. Even in the exact sciences, "knowing" is an art, of which the skill of the knower, guided by his personal commitment and his passionate sense of increasing contact with reality, is a logically necessary part. In the biological and social sciences this becomes even more evident. The tendency to make knowledge impersonal in our culture has split fact from value, science from humanity. Polanyi wishes to substitute for the objective, impersonal ideal of scientific detachment an alternative ideal which gives attention to the personal involvement of the knower in all acts of understanding. In honor of this work and his The Study of Man Polanyi was presented with the Lecomte de Noüy Award for 1959. --From publisher's description. |
Common terms and phrases
accept accrediting achieved acknowledge action affirmation altogether animal appraisal appreciation articulate assertion atomic Azande beliefs biology chimpanzee claim commitment comprehensive conception culture defined described discovery doubt established evidence example existence experience expressed extra-sensory perception fact formal framework function Gestalt psychology heuristic human ideal impersonal implied inarticulate inference intellectual passions intelligence interpretation J. S. Mill judgment kind language latent learning learning living logical gap London machine Marxism mathematical proof mathematics meaning mechanics mental merely Michelson-Morley experiment mind modern moral morphogenesis morphogenetic field natural science noosphere object objectivist observed operational principles original ourselves particular philosophy powers precisely premisses problem psychology quantum mechanics question R. A. Fisher random rational reality reason recognize rely rules scientific value scientists sense sentence society standards statement subsidiary symbols tacit theory things thought tion true truth understanding universal intent unspecifiable whole words