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- Title
MICHAEL POLANYI, SCIENTIST, SOCIOLOGIST AND PHILOSOPHER: THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL CONTRIBUTIONS IN SCIENCE.
- Authors
Sheppard, Norman
- Abstract
Polanyi's philosophy of science concentrates on the informal application of imagination and judgement in the vitally important context of the ready checking of theoretical ideas by experiment or by further observations, and not upon any formal methodology. Instead he applied his concept of tacit knowledge, i.e. the unique lifetime-acquired experiences of a person that can be brought to bear on a particular problem, to scientific research and its practical skills. His sociological account of how individual scientists are trained, and how they relate to others within the relevant scientific community, is particularly significant. Polanyi's account is contrasted with those of Popper and of Kuhn, in the latter case taking into account their different approaches to scientific revolutions (or upheavals as Polanyi termed them). Account is also given of Polanyi's assertion that biological phenomena cannot be fully defined in terms of physics and chemistry, and his use within science of the concept of emergent phenomena.
- Publication
Appraisal, 2010, Vol 8, Issue 1, p47
- ISSN
1358-3336
- Publication type
Academic Journal