View source for Michael Polanyi

{{Short description|Hungarian-British polymath (1891–1976)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Hungarian name|Polányi Mihály}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|size=100%}}
| image             = Michael Polanyi.png
| caption           = Polanyi in England, 1933.
| birth_name        = Pollacsek Mihály
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1891|3|11}}
| birth_place       = [[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1976|2|22|1891|3|11}}
| death_place       = [[Northampton]], England
| alma_mater        = [[Karlsruhe Institute of Technology|Technische Hochschule]]<br />[[University of Budapest]]
| occupation        = Polymath
| thesis_title      = Adsorption of Gases by a Solid Non-Volatile Adsorbent
| thesis_year       = 1917
| field             = [[Physical chemistry]]<br>[[Social studies]]
| workplaces        = [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]]<br />[[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]]<br>[[Merton College, Oxford]]
| doctoral_advisor  = {{ill|Gusztáv Buchböck|hu}}
| known_for         = [[Polanyi's paradox]]<br>[[Fiber diffraction|Polanyi's sphere]]<br>[[Polanyi potential theory]]<br>[[Bell–Evans–Polanyi principle]]<br>[[Eyring equation|Eyring–Polanyi equation]]<br>[[Flow plasticity theory]]<br>[[Transition state theory]]<br>[[Harpoon reaction]]<br>[[Tacit knowledge]]<br>[[Post-critical]]
| notable_works     = 
| spouse            = Magda Kemeny
| children          = 2, including [[John Polanyi|John]]
| relatives         = {{plainlist|
* [[Karl Polanyi]] (brother)
* [[Kari Polanyi Levitt]] (niece)
* [[Eva Zeisel]] (niece)
* [[Ilona Duczynska]] (sister-in-law)
}}
| awards            = [[Gifford Lectures]] {{small|(1951–1952)}}<br>[[List of fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1944|Fellow of the Royal Society]] {{small|(1944)}}
}}
'''Michael Polanyi''' ({{IPAc-en|p|oʊ|ˈ|l|æ|n|j|i}} {{respell|poh|LAN|yee}}; {{langx|hu|Polányi Mihály}}; 11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976) was a Hungarian-British<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mimicsoda.hu/cikk.php?id=1372 |title=A holográfia és a hologramok |last=Lévay |first=Júlia |date=20 September 2016 |website=mimicsoda.hu |publisher=Mi Micsoda}}</ref> [[polymath]], who made important theoretical contributions to [[physical chemistry]], [[economics]], and [[philosophy]]. He argued that [[positivism]] is a false account of [[knowledge|knowing]].

His wide-ranging research in [[Outline of physical science|physical science]] included [[chemical kinetics]], [[x-ray diffraction]], and [[adsorption]] of gases. He pioneered the theory of [[Fiber diffraction|fibre diffraction]] analysis in 1921, and the [[dislocation]] theory of plastic deformation of [[Ductility|ductile metals]] and other materials in 1934. He emigrated to [[Germany]], in 1926 becoming a chemistry professor at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]] in [[Berlin]], and then in 1933 to [[England]], becoming first a chemistry professor, and then a social sciences professor at the [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]]. Two of his students won the [[Nobel Prize]], as did [[John Polanyi|his son]]. In 1944 Polanyi was elected to the [[Royal Society]].

The contributions which Polanyi made to the social sciences include the concept of a polycentric spontaneous order and his rejection of a value neutral conception of liberty. They were developed in the context of his opposition to [[economic planning|central planning]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Biro|first=Gabor|date=2022|title=From Red Spirit to Underperforming Pyramids and Coercive Institutions: Michael Polanyi Against Economic Planning," History of European Ideas, 2022.|journal=History of European Ideas|volume=48|issue=6|pages=811–847|doi=10.1080/01916599.2021.2009359|s2cid=225260656|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01916599.2021.2009359?journalCode=rhei20|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Life==
===Early life===
Polanyi, born Mihály Pollacsek in Budapest, was the fifth child of Mihály and Cecília Pollacsek (born as [[Cecília Wohl]]), secular Jews from [[Ungvár]] (then in Hungary but now in Ukraine) and [[Wilno]], then [[Russian Empire]], respectively. His father's family were entrepreneurs, while his mother's father, Osher Leyzerovich Vol, was the senior teacher of Jewish history at the [[Vilnius|Vilna]] rabbinic seminary.<ref name="Dale">{{Cite book |last=Dale |first=Gareth |title=Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2016 |isbn=9780231176088 |doi=10.7312/dale17608}}</ref> The family moved to Budapest and [[Magyarization|Magyarized]] their surname to Polányi. His father built much of the Hungarian railway system, but lost most of his fortune in 1899 when bad weather caused a railway building project to go over budget. He died in 1905. Cecília Polányi established a salon that was well known among Budapest's intellectuals, and which continued until her death in 1939. His older brother was [[Karl Polanyi]], the political economist and anthropologist, and his niece was [[Eva Zeisel]], a world-renowned ceramist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.government-online.net/eva-zeisel-obituary/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112152211/http://www.government-online.net/eva-zeisel-obituary/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=12 November 2013|title=Eva Zeisel obituary |publisher=Government Online|date=15 January 2012|website=government-online.net|access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

===Education===
In 1908, Polanyi graduated the teacher-training secondary school, the [[Minta Gymnasium]]. He then studied medicine at the University of Budapest, obtaining his medical diploma in 1914.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=William T. |last2=Moleski |first2=Martin X. |title=Michael Polanyi: scientist and philosopher |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford New York Auckland |isbn=9780195174335 |pages=16–21 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/36398/chapter-abstract/320036558 |access-date=6 June 2023}}</ref> He was an active member of the [[Galileo Circle]]. With the support of {{ill|Ignác Pfeifer|de|Ignácz Pfeifer|hu|Pfeifer_Ignác}}, professor of chemistry at the [[Budapest University of Technology and Economics|Royal Joseph University]] of Budapest, he obtained a scholarship to study chemistry at the [[Technische Hochschule]] in [[Karlsruhe]], Germany. In the [[First World War]], he served in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] army as a medical officer, and was sent to the [[Austria-Hungary#Serbian front 1914–1916|Serbian front]]. While on sick-leave in 1916, he wrote a PhD thesis on [[adsorption]]. His research was encouraged by [[Albert Einstein]] and supervised by {{ill|Gusztáv Buchböck|hu}}, and in 1919 the [[Royal University of Pest]] awarded him a doctorate.

===Career===
In October 1918, [[Mihály Károlyi]] established the [[Hungarian Democratic Republic]], and Polanyi became Secretary to the Minister of Health. When the Communists seized power in March 1919, he returned to medicine. When the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]] was overthrown, Polanyi emigrated to Karlsruhe in Germany, and was invited by [[Fritz Haber]] to join the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Society|Kaiser Wilhelm Institut]] für Faserstoffchemie (fiber chemistry) in Berlin. A Christian since 1913, in a Roman Catholic ceremony he married Magda Elizabeth Kemeny.<ref>Torrance, Thomas F. (2002). "Mihály Polányi and the Christian faith: personal report" (pdf). Polanyiana (1–2), pp. 167–176.</ref> In 1926 he became the professorial head of department of the Institut für Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (now the [[Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society|Fritz Haber Institute]]). In 1929, Magda gave birth to their son [[John Charles Polanyi|John]], who was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1986. Their other son, [[George Polanyi]], who predeceased him, became a well-known economist.

His experience of [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|runaway inflation]] and high unemployment in [[Weimar Germany]] led Polanyi to become interested in economics. With the coming to power in 1933 of the [[Nazism|Nazi]] party, he accepted a chair in physical chemistry at the University of Manchester. Whilst there he was elected to membership of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] in 1934.<ref>
Memoirs And Proceedings Of The Manchester Literary And Philosophical Society Vol-xci (1950) </ref>     Two of his pupils, [[Eugene Wigner]] and [[Melvin Calvin]], went on to win the Nobel Prize. Because of his increasing interest in the social sciences, Manchester University created a new chair in [[Social Science]] (1948–58) for him.

Polanyi was among the 2,300 names of prominent persons listed on the [[Nazi]]s' [[The Black Book (list)|Special Search List]], of those who were to be arrested on the invasion of Great Britain and turned over to the [[Gestapo]].

From June 1944 to 1947, Polanyi participated in the activities of [[The Moot]], a Christian discussion circle concerned with shaping the post-war society, at the invitation of [[Karl Mannheim]] and [[J. H. Oldham]].{{sfn|Mullins|Jacobs|2005|p=28–29, 37}}

In 1944 Polanyi was elected a member of the [[Royal Society]],<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Wigner | first1 = E.&nbsp;P. | author-link1 = Eugene Wigner| last2 = Hodgkin | first2 = R.&nbsp;A. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1977.0016 | title = Michael Polanyi. 12 March 1891 – 22 February 1976 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 23 | page = 413 | year = 1977 | issue = 23 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and on his retirement from the University of Manchester in 1958 he was elected a senior research fellow at [[Merton College]], Oxford.<ref name="MCreg">{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=499}}</ref> In 1962 he was elected a foreign honorary member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref>

==Work==
===Physical chemistry===
Polanyi's scientific interests were extremely diverse, including work in [[chemical kinetics]], [[x-ray diffraction]], and the [[adsorption]] of gases at solid surfaces. He is also well known for the [[Polanyi potential theory|potential theory of adsorption]], which was disputed for quite some time. In 1921, he laid the mathematical foundation of [[fibre diffraction]] analysis. In 1934, Polanyi, at about the same time as [[Geoffrey Ingram Taylor|G. I. Taylor]] and [[Egon Orowan]], realised that the [[plasticity (physics)|plastic]] [[deformation (mechanics)|deformation]] of [[ductile]] materials could be explained in terms of the theory of [[dislocation]]s developed by [[Vito Volterra]] in 1905. The insight was critical in developing the field of [[solid mechanics]].

===Freedom and community===
In 1936, as a consequence of an invitation to give lectures for the Ministry of Heavy Industry in the [[USSR]], Polanyi met [[Bukharin]], who told him that in socialist societies all scientific research is directed to accord with the needs of the latest [[Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union|Five Year Plan]]. Polanyi noted what had happened to the study of [[genetics]] in the Soviet Union once the doctrines of [[Trofim Lysenko]] had gained the backing of the State. Demands in Britain, for example by the Marxist [[John Desmond Bernal]], for centrally planned scientific research led Polanyi to defend the claim that science requires free debate. Together with [[John Baker (biologist)|John Baker]], he founded the influential [[Society for Freedom in Science]].

In a series of articles, re-published in ''The Contempt of Freedom'' (1940) and ''The Logic of Liberty'' (1951), Polanyi claimed that co-operation amongst scientists is analogous to the way [[Agent (economics)|agents]] co-ordinate themselves within a [[free market]]. Just as consumers in a free market determine the value of products, science is a [[spontaneous order]] that arises as a consequence of open debate amongst specialists. Science (contrary to the claims of Bukharin) flourishes when scientists have the liberty to pursue truth as an end in itself:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Polanyi |first1=Michael |title=The Republic of Science: Its Political and Economic Theory |journal=Minerva |date=1962 |volume=1 |page=54-74 |doi=10.1007/BF01101453 |url=https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5100/polanyi_1967.pdf}}</ref>

{{blockquote|[S]cientists, freely making their own choice of problems and pursuing them in the light of their own personal judgment, are in fact co-operating as members of a closely knit organization.}}
{{blockquote|Such self-co-ordination of independent initiatives leads to a joint result which is unpremeditated by any of those who bring it about.}}
{{blockquote|Any attempt to organize the group ... under a single authority would eliminate their independent initiatives, and thus reduce their joint effectiveness to that of the single person directing them from the centre. It would, in effect, paralyse their co-operation.
}}

He derived the phrase [[spontaneous order]] from [[Gestalt psychology]], and it was adopted by the [[classical liberal]] economist [[Friederich Hayek]], although the concept can be traced back to at least [[Adam Smith]]. Polanyi unlike Hayek argued that there are higher and lower forms of spontaneous order, and he asserted that defending scientific inquiry on [[utilitarian]] or [[sceptical]] grounds undermined the practice of science. He extends this into a general claim about free societies. Polanyi defends a free society not on the negative grounds that we ought to respect "private liberties", but on the positive grounds that "public liberties" facilitate our pursuit of spiritual ends.

According to Polanyi, a free society that strives to be value-neutral undermines its own justification. But it is not enough for the members of a free society to believe that ideals such as truth, justice, and beauty, are not simply subjective, they also have to accept that they transcend our ability to wholly capture them. The non-subjectivity of values must be combined with acceptance that all knowing is fallible.

In ''Full Employment and Free Trade'' (1948) Polanyi analyses the way money circulates around an economy, and in a [[monetarist]] analysis that, according to [[Paul Craig Roberts]], was thirty years ahead of its time, he argues that a free market economy should not be left to be wholly self-adjusting. A [[central bank]] should attempt to moderate economic booms/busts via a strict/loose monetary policy.

In 1940, he produced a film,  "Unemployment and money. The principles involved", perhaps the first film about economics.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Beira|first=Eduardo|date=2019|title=pol1b – ebeira|url=https://sites.google.com/site/ebeira/pol1b|access-date=2020-08-31|website=sites.google.com}}</ref> The film defended a version of Keynesianism, neutral Keynesianism, that advised the State to use budget deficit and tax reductions to increase the amount of money in the circulation in times of economic hardship but did not seek direct investment or engage in public works.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Biro|first=Gabor|date=2020|title="Michael Polanyi's Neutral Keynesianism and the First Economics Film, 1933 to 1945," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2020.|journal=Journal of the History of Economic Thought|volume=42|issue=3|pages=335–356|doi=10.1017/S1053837219000476|s2cid=225260656|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-history-of-economic-thought/article/michael-polanyis-neutral-keynesianism-and-the-first-economics-film-1933-to-1945/3013E469C730D7A95B9E1715D9860E3A|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===All knowing is personal===
{{main|Post-critical}}
In his book ''Science, Faith and Society'' (1946), Polanyi set out his opposition to a [[positivism (philosophy)|positivist]] account of science, noting that among other things it ignores the role personal commitments play in the practice of science. Polanyi gave the [[Gifford Lectures]] in 1951–52 at Aberdeen, and a revised version of his lectures were later published as ''Personal Knowledge'' (1958). In this book Polanyi claims that all knowledge claims (including those that derive from rules) rely on personal judgments.<ref>''Personal Knowledge'', p. 18</ref> He denies that a [[scientific method]] can yield truth mechanically. All knowing, no matter how formalised, relies upon commitments. Polanyi argued that the assumptions that underlie [[critical philosophy]] are not only false, they undermine the commitments that motivate our highest achievements. He advocates a [[fiduciary]] [[post-critical]] approach, in which we recognise that we believe more than we can know, and know more than we can say.

A knower does not stand apart from the universe, but participates personally within it. Our intellectual skills are driven by passionate commitments that motivate discovery and validation. According to Polanyi, a great scientist not only identifies patterns, but also asks significant questions likely to lead to a successful resolution. Innovators risk their [[reputation]] by committing to a [[hypothesis]]. Polanyi cites the example of [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]], who declared that the [[Heliocentrism|Earth revolves around the Sun]]. He claims that Copernicus arrived at the Earth's true relation to the Sun not as a consequence of following a method, but via "the greater intellectual satisfaction he derived from the celestial panorama as seen from the Sun instead of the Earth."<ref>Personal Knowledge p. 3</ref> His writings on the practice of science influenced [[Thomas Kuhn]] and [[Paul Feyerabend]].

Polanyi rejected the claim by [[British Empiricists]] that experience can be reduced into [[sense data]], but he also rejects the notion that "indwelling" within (sometimes incompatible) interpretative frameworks traps us within them. Our tacit awareness connects us, albeit fallibly, with [[reality]]. It supplies us with the context within which our articulations have meaning. Contrary to the views of his colleague and friend [[Alan Turing]], whose work at the [[Victoria University of Manchester]] prepared the way for the [[History of computing hardware|first modern computer]], he denied that [[mind]]s are [[Reductionism|reducible]] to collections of rules. His work influenced the critique by [[Hubert Dreyfus]] of "First Generation" [[artificial intelligence]].

It was while writing ''Personal Knowledge'' that he identified the "structure of [[Tacit knowledge|tacit knowing]]". He viewed it as his most important discovery. He claimed that we experience the world by integrating our subsidiary awareness into a focal awareness. In his later work, for example his [[Terry Lectures]], later published as ''The Tacit Dimension'' (1966), he distinguishes between the [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]], [[Instrumentalism|instrumental]], [[semantic]], and [[ontological]] aspects of tacit knowing, as discussed (but not necessarily identified as such) in his previous writing.

===Critique of reductionism===
In "Life's irreducible structure" (1968),<ref>{{cite journal|title=Life's Irreducible Structure|author=Michael Polanyi|journal=Science|date=June 1968|volume=160|pmid=5651890|issue=3834|pages=1308–12|doi=10.1126/science.160.3834.1308|bibcode=1968Sci...160.1308P}}</ref> Polanyi argues that the information contained in the [[DNA]] [[molecule]] is not reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry. Although a DNA molecule cannot exist without physical properties, these properties are constrained by higher-level [[Implicate order|ordering]] principles. In "Transcendence and Self-transcendence" (1970),<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41177772|title=Transcendence and Self-transcendence|journal=Soundings|volume=53|issue=1|year=1970|pages=88–94|author=Michael Polanyi|jstor=41177772|access-date=25 August 2020}}</ref> Polanyi criticises the [[Mechanism (philosophy)|mechanistic]] [[world view]] that modern science inherited from [[Galileo]].

Polanyi advocates [[emergence]] i.e. the claim that there are several levels of reality and of [[causality]]. He relies on the assumption that [[boundary conditions]] supply [[degrees of freedom (statistics)|degrees of freedom]] that, instead of being random, are determined by higher-level realities, whose properties are dependent on but distinct from the lower level from which they emerge. An example of a higher-level reality functioning as a downward causal force is consciousness – [[intentionality]] – generating meanings – [[intensionality]].

Mind is a higher-level expression of the capacity of living organisms for [[Discrimination learning|discrimination]]. Our pursuit of self-set ideals such as truth and justice transform our understanding of the world. The [[reductionism|reductionistic]] attempt to reduce higher-level realities into lower-level realities generates what Polanyi calls a moral inversion, in which the higher is rejected with moral passion. Polanyi identifies it as a pathology of the modern mind and traces its origins to a false [[conception of knowledge]]; although it is relatively harmless in the formal sciences, that pathology generates [[nihilism]] in the humanities. Polanyi considered [[Marxism]] an example of moral inversion. The State, on the grounds of an appeal to the logic of history, uses its coercive powers in ways that disregard any appeals to [[morality]].<ref>Personal Knowledge, Ch. 7, section 11</ref>

=== Tacit knowledge ===
[[Tacit knowledge]], as distinct from explicit knowledge, is an influential term developed by Polanyi in ''The Tacit Dimension''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The tacit dimension|last=Polanyi|first=Michael|date=2009 |orig-year=1966|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-67298-4|location=Chicago|oclc=262429494}}</ref> to describe among other things the ability to do something without necessarily being able to articulate it: for example, being able to ride a bicycle or play a musical instrument without being able to fully explain the details of how it happens. He claims that not only do practical skills rely upon tacit awareness, all perception and meaning is rendered possible by agents relying upon their tacit awareness. Every consciousness has a subsidiary and a focal awareness, and this distinction also has an ontological dimension, because a lower and a higher dimension is how emergence takes place.

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* 1932. {{cite book |title= Atomic Reactions |publisher= Williams and Norgate |place= London |year= 1932 |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.207160/page/n5/mode/2up |via = [[Internet Archive]]}}
* 1935. ''U.S.S.R. Economics''
* 1940. {{cite book |title= The Contempt of Freedom. The Russian Experiment and After |publisher= Watts & Co. |place= London |url= https://archive.org/details/contemptoffreedo0000pola/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater |year= 1940 |isbn= 978-0-405-06643-6 |url-access= registration |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}<ref>{{cite journal |author= Hayek, F. A. |author-link= F. A. Hayek |title= Book Review: Michael Polanyi, ''The Contempt of Freedom: The Russian Experiment and After'' and Colin Clark, ''A Critique of Russian Statistics'' |journal = [[Economica]] |issue= 30 |volume= 8 |date= May 1941  |pages= 211–214 |jstor=2550123 |doi= 10.2307/2550123 }}</ref>
* 1944. {{cite journal |last1 = Polanyi |first1 = Michael |title= Patent Reform |journal = Review of Economic Studies |volume= 11 |issue = 2 |date= Summer 1944 |pages= 61–76 |doi = 10.2307/2295967 |url= https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_michael-polanyi_1944/page/n1/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access= registration |jstor= 2295967 |via = [[Internet Archive]]}}
* 1945. {{cite book |title= Full Employment and Free Trade |date= 14 May 2024 |place= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/fullemploymentfr0000mich/page/n7/mode/2up |url-access=registration |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}
* 1946. {{cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/sciencefaithands032129mbp |title= Science, Faith, and Society |publisher= Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=0-226-67290-5 |year= 1964}}. Reprinted by the University of Chicago Press, 1964.
* 1951. {{cite book |title= The Logic of Liberty: reflections and rejoinders |place= Chicago and London |publisher= University of Chicago Press and Routledge |isbn = 0-226-67296-4 |year= 1951 |url= https://archive.org/details/logicofliberty0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up |url-access= registration |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}
* 1958. {{cite book |title= Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy |publisher= University of Chicago Press |url= https://archive.org/details/personalknowledg0000pola/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access= registration |edition= 2nd |isbn =0-226-67288-3 |year = 1962 |via = [[Internet Archive]]}}
* 1959. {{cite book |title= The Study of Man |year = 1959 |place= London and Chicago |publisher= Routledge and University of Chicago Press |url= https://archive.org/details/studyofman0000mich_o3p6/page/n5/mode/2up |url-access = registration}}
* 1960. {{cite book |title= Beyond Nihilism |url= https://archive.org/details/beyondnihilism0000pola |url-access= registration |place= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press|year= 1960 }}
* 1966. {{cite book |title= The Tacit Dimension |date= 14 May 1967 |place= London and New York |publisher=Routledge and Doubleday and Company |isbn= 978-0-385-06988-5 |url= https://archive.org/details/tacitdimension0000mich_w4j8/page/n3/mode/2up |url-access= registration |via = [[Internet Archive]]}} (University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-67298-4}}. 2009 reprint)
* 1969. {{cite book |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/knowingbeingessa00pola|title= Knowing and Being |editor-link=  Marjorie Grene |editor= Greene, Marjorie|year= 1969 |place= Chicago and London |publisher= University of Chicago Press and (UK) Routledge and Kegan Paul}}
* 1975 {{cite book |author1= Polanyi, Michael  |author2= Prosch, Harry |author2-link= Harry Prosch  |title= Meaning  |url=https://archive.org/details/meaning00pola/page/n3/mode/2up |url-access= registration |year= 1975 |place= Chicago |publisher=  University of Chicago Press |isbn =0-226-67294-8}}
* 1997. {{cite book |title=Society, Economics and Philosophy: Selected Papers of Michael Polanyi |editor= Allen, R.T. |place =New Brunswick NJ |publisher= Transaction Publishers |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/societyeconomics0000pola |year= 1997 |isbn= 978-1-56000-278-9 |via = [[Internet Archive]]}} Includes an annotated bibliography of Polanyi's publications.
{{refend}}

==See also==
* [[Credo ut intelligam]]
* [[Knowledge management]]
* [[List of Christians in science and technology]]
* [[Michael Polanyi Center]]
* [[George Holmes Howison#Philosophy|George Holmes Howison's "Personal Idealism"]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* Allen, R. T., 1991. ''Polanyi''. London, Claridge Press.
* Allen, R. T., 1998. ''Beyond Liberalism: A Study in the Political Thought of F. A. Hayek and Michael Polanyi'', Rutgers, NJ, Transaction Publishers.
*Allen, R. T. (ed.), ''Freedom, authority and economics : essays on Michael Polanyi's politics and economics'', Wilmington, Delaware : Vernon Press, 2017.
* Gelwick, Richard, 1987. ''The Way of Discovery: An Introduction to the Thought of Michael Polanyi''. Oxford University Press.
*Gill, Jerry H., ''The tacit mode : Michael Polanyi's postmodern philosophy,'' Albany : State University of New York Press, 2000.
* [[Patrick Grant (academic)|Grant, Patrick]]. "Belief in thinking: Owen Barfield and Michael Polanyi", in ''Six Modern Authors and Problems of Belief''. London: MacMillan 1979.{{ISBN|9780333263402}}
* Jacobs, Struan, and Allen, R. T. (eds.), 2005. ''Emotion, Reason and Tradition: Essays on the Social, Political and Economic Thought of Michael Polanyi'', Guildford, Ashgate. {{ISBN|0-7546-4067-1}}.
* Mitchell, Mark, 2006. ''Michael Polanyi: The Art of Knowing (Library Modern Thinkers Series)''. Wilmington, Delaware: [[Intercollegiate Studies Institute]]. {{ISBN|1-932236-90-2}}, {{ISBN|978-1-932236-90-3}}.
* {{citation |last1=Mullins |first1=Phil |last2=Jacobs |first2=Struan |title=Michael Polanyi and Karl Mannheim |journal=Tradition & Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical |volume=32 |issue=1 |year=2005 |pages=20–43 |doi=10.5840/traddisc2005/20063218 |url=https://www.polanyisociety.org/TAD%20WEB%20ARCHIVE/TAD32-1/TAD32-1-fnl-pg20-43-pdf.pdf}}
*  Neidhardt, W. Jim: [http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1979/JASA3-79Neidhardt.html "Possible Relationships Between Polanyi's Insights and Modern Findings in Psychology, Brain Research, and Theories of Science."] ''JASA'' 31 (March 1979): 61–62.
* Nye, Mary Jo, 2011. ''Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science''. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-61063-4}}.
* Poirier, Maben W. 2002. ''A Classified and Partially Annotated Bibliography of Michael Polanyi, the Anglo-Hungarian Philosopher of Science''. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press. {{ISBN|1-55130-212-8}}.
* Scott, Drusilla, 1995. ''Everyman Revived: The Common Sense of Michael Polanyi''. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. {{ISBN|0-8028-4079-5}}.
* Scott, William Taussig, and Moleski, Martin X., 2005. ''Michael Polanyi, Scientist and Philosopher''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-517433-X}}.
* Stines, J. W.: [http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1992/PSCF12-92Stines.html "Time, Chaos Theory and the Thought of Michael Polanyi."] ''JASA'' 44 (December 1992): 220–27.
* Thorson, Walter R.: [http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1981/JASA9-81Thorson.html "The Biblical Insights of Michael Polanyi."] ''JASA'' 33 (September 1981): 129–38.
* {{cite journal |last1=Hargittai |first1=Istvan |title=Michael Polanyi—pupils and crossroads—on the 125th anniversary of his birth |journal=Structural Chemistry |date=1 October 2016 |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=1327–1344 |doi=10.1007/s11224-016-0816-8 |language=en |issn=1572-9001|doi-access=free |bibcode=2016StrCh..27.1327H }}
{{refend}}
*''The Logic of Personal knowledge : essays presented to Michael Polanyi on his seventieth birthday, 11th March 1961''. London : Routledge & Paul.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{refbegin}}
* [http://www.hyle.org/journal/issues/8-2/bio_nye.html Biography] by Mary Jo Nye
* [http://www.missouriwestern.edu/orgs/polanyi/ Polanyi Society] home page
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180319154655/http://spcps.org.uk/ The Society for Personalist and Postcritical Studies] The SPCPS and its journal, "Appraisal", takes a special interest in Michael Polanyi. Archived on the [[Wayback Machine]] on 19 March 2019
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/~20thcentury/html/polanyi_michael.htm Polanyi resources] at erraticimpact.com
* ''[http://www.kfki.hu/chemonet/polanyi/9912/contents.html Polanyiana],'' Vol. 8, Number 1–2
* Smith, M. K., 2003, "[http://www.infed.org/thinkers/polanyi.htm Michael Polanyi and tacit knowledge.]" The encyclopaedia of informal education
* [https://emergentpublications.com/ECO/ECO_other/Issue_14_4_10_CP.pdf "Life's Irreducible Structure"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804161459/https://emergentpublications.com/ECO/ECO_other/Issue_14_4_10_CP.pdf/ |date=4 August 2019 }}. Michael Polanyi. ''Journal of the [[American Scientific Affiliation]]''. Volume 22 (December 1970): 123–31.  Links to Responses by Stanford Materials Science Professor [[Richard H. Bube]] and another member of the ASA [[Cohn Duricz]].
* {{Internet Archive author |sname= |sopt=w}}
* [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.POLANYI Guide to the Michael Polanyi Papers 1900–1975] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
{{refend}}

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{{s-npo|pro}}
{{s-bef|before= [[H. J. Fleure|Herbert John Fleure]] }}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] |years=1944–46}}
{{s-aft|after= [[T. B. L. Webster|Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster]] }}
{{s-bef|before= Godfrey W. Armitage }}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the [[Manchester Statistical Society]] |years=1950–51}}
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{{Philosophy of science}}
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