Personal Knowledge

Personal Knowledge
Author: Michael Polanyi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2012-06-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134746091

First published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Michael Polanyi

Michael Polanyi
Author: Mark T. Mitchell
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1684516811

The polymath Michael Polanyi first made his mark as a physical chemist, but his interests gradually shifted to economics, politics, and philosophy, in which field he would ultimately propose a revolutionary theory of knowledge that grew out of his firsthand experience with both the scientific method and political totalitarianism. In this sixth entry in ISI Books’ Library of Modern Thinkers’ series, Mark T. Mitchell reveals how Polanyi came to recognize that the roots of the modern political and spiritual crisis lay in an errant conception of knowledge that served to foreclose any possibility of making meaningful statements about truth, goodness, or beauty. Polanyi’s theory of knowledge as ineluctably personal but also grounded in reality is not merely of historical interest, writes Mitchell, for it proposes an attractive alternative for anyone who would reject both the hubris of modern rationalism and the ultimately nihilistic implications of academic postmodernism.

The Tacit Dimension

The Tacit Dimension
Author: Michael Polanyi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2009-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0226672980

"The Tacit Dimension" argues that tacit knowledge -tradition, inherited practices, implied values, and prejudgments- is a crucial part of scientific knowledge. This volume challenges the assumption that skepticism, rather than established belief, lies at the heart of scientific discovery.

Meaning

Meaning
Author: Michael Polanyi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1975
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0226672956

Published very shortly before his death in February 1976, Meaning is the culmination of Michael Polanyi's philosophic endeavors. With the assistance of Harry Prosch, Polanyi goes beyond his earlier critique of scientific "objectivity" to investigate meaning as founded upon the imaginative and creative faculties. Establishing that science is an inherently normative form of knowledge and that society gives meaning to science instead of being given the "truth" by science, Polanyi contends here that the foundation of meaning is the creative imagination. Largely through metaphorical expression in poetry, art, myth, and religion, the imagination is used to synthesize the otherwise chaotic and disparate elements of life. To Polanyi these integrations stand with those of science as equally valid modes of knowledge. He hopes this view of the foundation of meaning will restore validity to the traditional ideas that were undercut by modern science. Polanyi also outlines the general conditions of a free society that encourage varied approaches to truth, and includes an illuminating discussion of how to restore, to modern minds, the possibility for the acceptance of religion.

Science, Faith and Society

Science, Faith and Society
Author: Michael Polanyi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2013-01-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 022616344X

In its concern with science as an essentially human enterprise, Science, Faith and Society makes an original and challenging contribution to the philosophy of science. On its appearance in 1946 the book quickly became the focus of controversy. Polanyi aims to show that science must be understood as a community of inquirers held together by a common faith; science, he argues, is not the use of "scientific method" but rather consists in a discipline imposed by scientists on themselves in the interests of discovering an objective, impersonal truth. That such truth exists and can be found is part of the scientists' faith. Polanyi maintains that both authoritarianism and scepticism, attacking this faith, are attacking science itself.

Everyman Revived

Everyman Revived
Author: Lady Drusilla Scott
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1995
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780802840790

This book has been done in a way and in a style that makes for very easy reading and understanding, even by those who have not been familiar with the deep changes going on in science. This is a fine piece of communication to the wider public and will be widely received.-The Reverend Professor T.F. Torrance.

The Logic of Personal Knowledge

The Logic of Personal Knowledge
Author: Polanyi Festschrift Committee
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2015-06-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317440226

Originally published in 1961. Michael Polanyi was a polymath who influenced economics and the sciences as well as philosophy. His wide-ranging research in physical science is as well-known as his work on freedom and knowledge and his arguments against positivism and reductionism. This collection of essays written for him touches on all aspects of his influence but rotates around his published lectures Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. The contributors address four areas – The Scientist as Knower, Historical Perspectives, The Knowledge of Society and the Knowledge of Living Things.

Iris Murdoch, Gender and Philosophy

Iris Murdoch, Gender and Philosophy
Author: Sabina Lovibond
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2011-04-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136819363

Iris Murdoch was one of the best-known philosophers and novelists of the post-war period. In this book, Sabina Lovibond explores the tangled issue of Murdoch's stance towards gender and feminism, drawing upon the evidence of her fiction, philosophy, and other public statements. As well as analysing Murdoch's own attitudes, Iris Murdoch, Gender and Philosophy is also a critical enquiry into the way we picture intellectual, and especially philosophical, activity. Appealing to the idea of a 'social imaginary' within which Murdoch's work is located, Lovibond examines the sense of incongruity or dissonance that may still affect our image of a woman philosopher, even where egalitarian views officially hold sway. The first thorough exploration of Murdoch and gender, Iris Murdoch, Gender and Philosophy is a fresh contribution to debates in feminist philosophy and gender studies, and essential reading for anyone interested in Murdoch's literary and philosophical writing.