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Michael Polanyi on the Education and Knowledge of Scientists

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Abstract

Rich in insights, groundbreaking in its interpretations, Personal Knowledge deserves to be better known. Modestly contributing to this end, the present paper explains why teachers addressing the nature of science should spend time on Polanyi. Outlining his intellectual career (from medicine to the cutting edge of chemical research, to the analysis of science and society), his ideas on education of scientists, on research and knowledge are then examined. Much of what he found in science – personal knowledge, intellectual passion, faith, trust, tacit understanding, method rules embodied in practice but seldom amenable to formulation – contradicted the ‘orthodox’ understanding of it. He presaged Kuhn, Feyerabend, and the constructivists, yet insisted that science produces true knowledge about reality. Tension between tradition and innovation characterizes Polanyi's thought, as it does Polanyian scientific research.

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Jacobs, S. Michael Polanyi on the Education and Knowledge of Scientists. Science & Education 9, 309–320 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008729129597

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