Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical PhilosophyIn this work the distinguished 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. His book should help to restore science to its rightful place in an integrated culture, as part of the whole person's continuing endeavor to make sense of the totality of his experience. |
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Contents
Part Two The Tacit Component | 69 |
Part Three The Justification of Personal Knowledge | 261 |
Part Four Knowing and Being | 343 |
Index | 429 |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract arts accept accrediting achieved acknowledge affirmation altogether animal animal’s appraisal appreciation articulate assertion atomic Azande behaviour beliefs biology chimpanzee claim commitment comprehensive conception culture defined described discovery doubt established example existence experience extra-sensory perception fact formal framework function germ plasm Gestalt psychology heuristic human impersonal implied inarticulate inference intellectual passions intelligence interpretation judgment kind language latent learning learning living logical gap London machine man’s Marxism mathematical proof mathematics meaning mechanics mental merely Michelson-Morley experiment mind modern moral morphogenesis morphogenetic field natural science noosphere objectivist objects observed operational principles original ourselves particular perception performance philosophy powers premisses probability problem psychology quantum mechanics question random rational reality reason recognize rely rules scientific value scientists sense sentence society standards statement subsidiary symbols tacit theory theory of relativity things thought true truth understanding universal intent unspecifiable whole words
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical Philosophy |
| Author | Michael Polanyi |
| Edition | reprint, revised |
| Publisher | Psychology Press, 1998 |
| ISBN | 041515149X, 9780415151498 |
| Length | 428 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |