Michael Polanyi (1891–1976)

Academic and professional life can seem fragmented at times. After receiving a course of general education, we specialize and then sub-specialize. (Will we sub-sub-specialize in the future?) In particular, the humanities can seem vastly different from the natural sciences, which can seem vastly different from engineering. Into this fragmentation, Polanyi offers a comprehensive philosophy with humans at the center. Polanyi, a physical chemist with economic and philosophical interests, can speak with authority on such broad matters due to his broad erudition.

Of course, Polanyi is most well-known for his book Personal Knowledge. This book can be read as a short introduction to that seminal work. Here, he introduces the concept that all objective knowledge relies on “tacit knowledge” based in human practices. We do not simply memorize our environment but take part in a social inquiry. This rightly notes that there is a human component to all studies. At its core, all studies of the outside are a way to teach ourselves how to live.

This means that all academic inquiry is ultimately a way to study humans and our place in the universe. By mastering endeavors of the mind, we master ourselves, and by mastering our subject matter, we find our place in human history. For Polanyi, this aim of mastery is equally true for the humanities, the natural sciences, and applied fields like engineering.

This work has had great impact in the second-half of the twentieth century. I find Polanyi’s approach liberating from those who just view the sciences as a way to earn money. Instead, they can involve the human soul and spirit as much as the humanities. And they also give scientists a reason to explore inquiry into what it means to be human. In the twenty-first century, this uniting vision is still needed, both on campus and in society, where fragmentation abounds along political lines.… (more)