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Title: Michael Polanyi, Scientist, Sociologist and Philosopher: The Importance of Personal Contributions in Science (Critical Essay)
Author : Appraisal
Release Date : January 01, 2010
Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
Pages : * pages
Size : 207 KB

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1. Introduction Michael Polanyi, who died in 1976, came from a liberal and cultured Jewish Austro-Hungarian family. He was a natural polymath. During his early career he moved from an early interest in medicine to the field of physical chemistry in which he did work of notable originality in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry in Berlin. After the advent of Hitler, he moved to the University of Manchester in 1933 as Professor of Physical Chemistry, and while there was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1944. His concern for the aftermath of the 1929 economic crash led him to try and work out a model for the economic cycle and he was permitted to change his Manchester Chair of Physical Chemistry for one of Social Studies in 1948. From then he turned to a more general philosophy which was strongly underpinned by his experiences as a scientist. His magnum opus Personal Knowledge (1) (hereafter referred to as PK) published in 1958, the theme of which relates to that of this conference, was published in 1958 as a great expansion of his earlier Gifford Lectures, published in 1946 as Science, Faith and Society. (2) PK is not an easy read, partly because of the width of the topics covered, but contains much original content. Perhaps because, to them, he refers to many unfamiliar examples from the field of science, Polanyi's work is little quoted by other philosophers of science, at least partially because he considers that their strongly rationalist approach does less than justice to science in action. He was disappointed by the lack of acceptance of his work in the UK, but during the two decades before his death he was invited frequently to speak in the USA where his ideas have been mostly applied in non-scientific fields.