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.

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.

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.

Scepticism, Relativism, and Religious Knowledge

Scepticism, Relativism, and Religious Knowledge
Author: Michael G Harvey
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0227902173

'Scepticism, Relativism, and Religious Knowledge' shows where responses to scepticism and relativism by Karl Barth and Reformed epistemology have led to impasses, and reconstructs their insights in a robust response that does not depend on making excessive claims about our epistemic capacities. This response is based on a nuanced conception of the relationship between trust, doubt, faith, and reason, and a Kierkegaardian perspective on religious knowledge that stresses the role of the will and the intellectual and theological virtues. This book will appeal to those with an interest in the deep, and often difficult, questions of religion and philosophy, particularly regarding matters of truth, doubt and belief.

Critical Conversations

Critical Conversations
Author: Murray Rae
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2012-01-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 162189150X

Critical Conversations provides a series of theological engagements with the work of Michael Polanyi, one of the twentieth century's most profound philosophers of science. Polanyi's sustained explorations of the nature of human knowing open a range of questions and themes of profound importance for theology. He insists on the need to recover the categories of faith and belief in accounting for the way we know and points to the importance of tradition and the necessity sometimes of conversion in order to learn the truth of things. These themes are explored along with Polanyi's social and political thought, his anthropology, his hermeneutics, and his conception of truth. Several of the essays set Polanyi alongside the work of other thinkers, particularly Karl Barth, Lesslie Newbigin, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Rene Girard, and they discuss points of comparison and contrast between the respective figures. While all the essays are appreciative of Polanyi's contribution, they do not shy away from critical analysis--and take further, therefore, the critical appreciation of Polanyi's work.

Guide to Personal Knowledge: The Philosophy of Michael Polanyi

Guide to Personal Knowledge: The Philosophy of Michael Polanyi
Author: Dániel Paksi
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2022-09-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1648894399

This book will help readers understand the most important book of Michael Polanyi, ‘Personal Knowledge’, and help them grasp the essence of his philosophical thinking. In this volume, Polanyi’s goals are first reconstructed, and then his main philosophical arguments are introduced. The discussion is limited to the most crucial ideas that are indispensable for the arc of his book: tacit knowledge, emergence and the fiduciary program. The thirteen chapters of this volume explain the essence of the thirteen chapters of ‘Personal Knowledge’. The page numbers in this book work just as well with the 2015 ‘Enlarged Edition‘ of ‘Personal Knowledge‘ as with the original issues. Whether you just want to get the key quotation and the context right on tacit knowledge, emergence or the fiduciary program, or want to have a deep dive for your scholarly research in philosophy and management, this book is for you.

Science, Freedom, Democracy

Science, Freedom, Democracy
Author: Péter Hartl
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2021
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780367823436

"This book addresses the complex relationship between the values of liberal democracy and the values associated with scientific research. The chapters explore how these values mutually reinforce or conflict with one another, in both historical and contemporary contexts. The contributors utilize various approaches to address this timely subject, including historical studies, philosophical analysis, and sociological case studies. The chapters cover a range of topics including academic freedom and autonomy, public control of science, the relationship between scientific pluralism and deliberative democracy, lay-expert relations in a democracy, and the threat of populism and autocracy to scientific inquiry. Taken together the essays demonstrate how democratic values and the epistemic and non-epistemic values associated with science are interconnected. Science, Freedom, and Democracy will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in philosophy of science, history of philosophy, sociology of science, political philosophy, and epistemology"--

The Idea of Creativity (paperback)

The Idea of Creativity (paperback)
Author: Karen Bardsley
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2009-03-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9047427904

Seventeen philosophers, scientists and artists consider questions about the intriguing idea of creativity: Is creativity essentially mysterious? Is creativity essentially inspirational or rationalistic? What role does skill play in creativity? What are the criteria of creativity? Should we assign logical priority to creative persons, creative processes, or creative products? How do forms of creativity relate to different domains of human activity? How does creativity relate to self-transformation? How does our knowledge of the circumstances of creativity effect our appreciation of its products? Can a recipient of a creative work also be a creator of it? Contributors include: Margaret Boden, Larry Briskman, John M. Carvalho, David Davies, Berys Gaut,Rom Harré, Carl R. Hausman, Albert Hofstadter, Arthur Koestler, Michael Krausz, Peter Lamarque, Thomas Leddy, Paisley Livingston, Michael Polany, Dean Keith Simonton, and Francis Sparshott.