Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy Corr. Ed Edition

by Michael Polanyi (Author)

34 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0226672885

ISBN-10: 0226672883

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In 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. In honor of this work and his The Study of Man Polanyi was presented with the Lecomte de Noüy Award for 1959.

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Product details

Paperback: 428 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; Corr. Ed edition (August 15, 1974)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226672883
ISBN-13: 978-0226672885
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review: 34 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #55 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy > Metaphysics
- #320 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Metaphysics
- #1000 in Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy

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Preface is worth the price of the entire text...

April 25, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Among the thousands of mind blowing connections on each page, a central tone of humble self skepticism pervades the text and gives it a richness uncommon in difficult special-language philosophy texts. Recursively, this comes from a central premise of Polanyi himself, that Every jump from evidence to interpretation to explanation brings in countless beliefs and biases, a point made by Mary Joe Nye in the preface.

On that topic, the preface itself is worth the price of the entire book! It very clearly outlines not just Polanyi's central premises, but Polanyi the person. BUT it must me studied, not read. In Polanyi's own terms, knowledge requires commitment, which implies bias, and profiting from this volume takes a LOT of effort due to the stylistic and special linguistic significance of many terms, which are not used in their ordinary sense.

Of course you could say that about all philosophy of science texts, but this book is unique in that it doesn't "start and end with words" like a lot of texts that seem to just be an ego outing by the author to dance with semantics, but actually helps the reader look at her life through different lenses, frames, focuses and zooms as we examine the practical assumptions we make when jumping from evidence to explanation. Highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart or time constrained soul!

6 people found this helpful7 people found this helpful

Thomas D. Howes

Fortunately his influence goes beyond that

July 30, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Outstanding book. Builds off of insights of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, and connects them with his knowledge as a chemist. Original synthesis by an original thinker who is passionate for the truth. One of the most important philosophy books of the 20th century, even if it is not normally accounted as such. A true classic. Polanyi deserves more attention among academic philosophers. Fortunately his influence goes beyond that, even extending to management and economic theory, notably through Hayek.

Beyond its application to economics, social theory, and management theory, he offers serious challenges to the popular representational theories of modernity. Our connection with reality is preserved while acknowledging our fallibility, but through a rational criticism of doubt. We contact reality through our indwelling of the media through which we contact reality. The media of our senses, use of tools, and construction of theory are affirmed. Our access to reality requires a commitment on our part; the legitimate role of subjectivity in achieving access to reality is affirmed rather than placed under the rug in the way they are in popular conceptions of science. Polanyi brings much insight here. In many ways his insights about the sociology of science in this regard previewed what Thomas Kuhn would later write. The advantage of Polanyi is that his interpretation of these phenomena are less skeptical on account of the rest of the epistemology that he works out.

Truly an outstanding work. Worth reading 3-4 times.

10 people found this helpful11 people found this helpful

Tips for reading a masterpiece

March 13, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I have some words of advice for a new reader of Michael Polanyi's Personal Knowledge. These tips will likely apply more or less to the extent by which the reader studies philosophy, but either way, they are useful considerations. For starters, a beginner should be okay with only a loose understanding of Polanyi's content (if any grasp at all) at any given time. The breadth of covered ground within this text spans wider than the average mind, and you cannot be expected to consistently maintain an even moderate comprehension. However, proceed steadily; keep faith in Polanyi's control, and expect with good nerve moments of clarity.

Secondly, after reading any given section, be it one page long or twenty, write down a couple sentences of takeaway knowledge. Obviously, you can look to Polanyi's italicized sentences for guidance towards the most noteworthy ideas. But search particularly for those keywords that strike you in ways you might not expect. Find the dictional centres around which the rest of the words revolve. In this way you will set yourself up for a third instruction: you are learning a new language.

Consider reading Personal Knowledge less like a philosophy lecture and more like a storybook in a foreign language. Truly, the text demands immersion into the title itself, this new and unassuming paradox coined by Polanyi--this "personal knowledge"--and immersion into all the unexpected stories of which the author draws upon to make his point. Albeit, the logical flow of Polanyi's argument is not contingent upon all of these pieces. Polanyi himself acknowledges time and time again how many parts are "digressions," "beside the point," or "merely interesting." After struggling through chapter five, you may admittedly feel betrayed by the beginning of six: "the previous chapter was a digression" (132). (Not to tempt you with skipping chapter five--don't). I would go so far as to say that, from the standpoint of logician's progress, four-fifths of the text is non-essential material.

That being said, the four-fifths may actually be quite essential in the sense of immersion. Within the four-fifths are surprising stories of all kinds: speech and mathematics, evolution and biology, crystallography and communications and probability, reason, faith, doubt, God, etc. Each of the different narratives pushes and prods our understanding of personal knowledge, and not just that, each narrative expands the meanings of a whole arsenal of words employed by Polanyi to make his point. Of course, describing this expansion is difficult at best, and it really can only be experienced--a gestalt sensation like much of what Polanyi describes. So allow me one final direction for the novice reading.

Do not skip the preface; read it slowly; write a paragraph about what it means to you and proceed with the rest of the book. Then, when you have finished going through every narrative, every dead-end, and every digression, go back to the preface. Read it again slowly and appreciate your new context. In hindsight, the first reading will feel shallow and small, even if it felt fine at the time. Acknowledge how the words are all the same as before, yet they all have new functions and new meanings with a new background. The second preface reading will have all the colours and currents of the deep river in which you submerged yourself for four hundred pages. We may call the shift of colour our second simplicity.

34 people found this helpful35 people found this helpful

Oren J. Foust, Jr.

Connecting subject and object, the knower with what may be known. Epistemological genius.

August 5, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Polanyi's magnum opus is seminal for all future thinking about knowing and science in general. He takes our knowledge of reality out of the abstract ideal of imaginary objective and grounds us in the concrete reality that confronts us with authentic objectivity. I doing so he forever bridges the chasm between personal knower and what is known, between subject and object. Critical realism would be nothing without him. Thank you Dr. Polanyi!

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

Peter G. Westin

Very important for academics. Reading Polanyi can be a ...

August 31, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Very important for academics. Reading Polanyi can be a tough read for anyone unfamiliar with 1950s academic writing style. If the topic of tacit knowledge, how people acquire knowledge, etc. interests you then it is worth taking the extra time to read slowly and carefully.

5 people found this helpful6 people found this helpful

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