Michael Polyanyi

know more tell

“We know more than we can tell.”

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

human universe human language exigency perspective world

“as human beings, we must inevitably see the universe from a centre lying within ourselves and speak about it in terms of a human language shaped by the exigencies of human intercourse. Any attempt rigorously to eliminate our human perspective from our picture of the world must lead to absurdity.”

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

probability statement belief

“This difference between a probability statement on the one hand, and the probability of a statement, or the degree of belief in a statement on the other, may seem elusive, but is actually quite obvious.”

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

process philosophy science enlightenment belief faith

"The process of philosophic and scientific enlightenment has shaken the stability of beliefs held explicitly as articles of faith."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

tacit knowledge explicit understand apply

"While tacit knowledge can be possessed by itself, explicit knowledge must rely on being tacitly understood and applied. Hence all knowledge is either tacit or rooted in tacit knowledge. A wholly explicit knowledge is unthinkable."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

information DNA reduce chemical idea book ink paper

"The information in DNA could no more be reduced to the chemical than could the ideas in a book be reduced to the ink and paper: something beyond physics and chemistry encoded DNA."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

free society control people meaningful totalitarian

"A free society is regarded as one that does not engage, on principle, in attempting to control what people find meaningful, and a totalitarian society is regarded as one that does, on principle, attempt such control."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

knowledge justify evidence belief authority few standing

"The amount of knowledge which we can justify from evidence directly available to us can never be large. The overwhelming proportion of our factual beliefs continue therefore to be held at second hand through trusting others, and in the great majority of cases our trust is placed in the authority of comparatively few people of widely acknowledged standing."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

personal participation principle knowing knowledge

"Personal participation is the universal principle of knowing."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

language question theory universe vocabulary structure

"So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)

scientist free problem co-operate knit organization

"The first thing to make clear is that scientists, 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."

― Michael Polanyi (1891-1976)