Books by Michael Polanyi

Endelig foreligger denne klassiker fra 1966 på dansk. Den appellerer til alle, der interesserer sig for, hvad viden er, og hvordan vi tilegner os den. Polanyi introducerer i denne bog begrebet tavs viden, som peger på, at vi kan vide mere, end vi kan redegøre for. Den tavse viden må ses som en afgørende del af videnskabelig erkendelse og som det grundlag, vores værdier og vurderinger udspringer af. Mennesket handler på baggrund af denne ikke-sproglige viden. Bogen har tre dele; først en introduktion til begrebet tavs viden, skellet mellem aktuel tavs viden og principiel tavs viden, dernæst ideen om flere virkelighedsniveauer, der ikke kan reduceres op eller ned, og sidst beskrivelsen af etableringen af et samfund af opdagere. ”Han ønsker, at vi alle skal være engagerede opdagere i og af vores liv. Deri ligger hans revolutionære potentiale. Friheden ligger i engagementet, i at stille sig til rådighed, i at tænke kritisk i forhold til det eksisterende, i at få øje på et godt problem”, skriver Allan Holmgren i bogens danske forord.Nyt forord af nobelprisvinder Amartya Sen.MICHAEL POLANYI (1891-1976) var en ungarsk-britisk polyhistor, der gav væsentlige teoretiske bidrag til fysisk kemi, økonomi, filosofi og sociologi. Blandt hans vigtigste bøger er Science, Faith and Society og Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy.

Suitable for students and scholars, this title challenges the assumption that skepticism, rather than established belief, lies at the heart of scientific discovery.

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.

Because of the difficulty posed by the contrast between the search for truth and truth itself, Michael Polanyi believes that we must alter the foundation of epistemology to include as essential to the very nature of mind, the kind of groping that constitutes the recognition of a problem. This collection of essays, assembled by Marjorie Grene, exemplifies the development of Polanyi's theory of knowledge which was first presented in Science, Faith, and Society and later systematized in Personal Knowledge. Polanyi believes that the dilemma of the modern mind arises from the peculiar relation between the positivist claim for total objectivity in scientific knowledge and the unprecedented moral dynamism characterizing the social and political aspirations of the last century. The first part of Knowing and Being deals with this theme. Part two develops Polanyi's idea that centralization is incompatible with the life of science as well as his views on the role of tradition and authority in science. The essays on tacit knowing in Part Three proceed directly from his preoccupation with the nature of scientific discovery and reveal a pervasive substructure of all intelligent behavior. Polanyi believes that all knowing involves movement from internal clues to external evidence. Therefore, to explain the process of knowing, we must develop a theory of the nature of living things in general, including an account of that aspect of living things we call "mind." Part Four elaborates upon this theme.