Michael Polanyi

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Michael Polanyi (born Polányi Mihály) (March 11, 1891 – February 22, 1976) was a Hungarian–British polymath whose thought and work extended across physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy.

1 Early life
2 Physical chemistry
3 Philosophy of science
4 Economics
5 Professional honours
6 Family
7 See also
8 Bibliography
9 Further reading
10 External links

[edit] Early life

Michael was born into a Jewish family in Budapest. His older brother Karl became a famous economist. Their father was an engineer and entrepreneur whose volatile fortunes in railway speculation motivated Polanyi to seek financial stability through a career in medicine. He graduated in 1913, and shortly afterwards served as a physician in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, but was hospitalised, and during his convalescence wrote what became a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Budapest in 1917.

In 1920, he emigrated to Germany to work as a chemist at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fiber Chemistry in Berlin. There, he married Magda Elizabeth in a Roman Catholic ceremony. In 1929, Magda gave birth to a son John, who went on to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry. With the coming to power in 1933 of the Nazi party Polanyi took up a position as Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Manchester. In a significant shift, following his growing contribution to the literature of social science and philosophy, Michael Polanyi became Professor of Social Sciences at Manchester (1948-58).

[edit] Physical chemistry

Polanyi's scientific interests were diverse, embracing chemical kinetics, x-ray diffraction and the absorption of gases at solid surfaces.

In 1934, Polanyi, roughly contemporarily with G. I. Taylor and Egon Orowan realised that the plastic deformation of ductile materials could be explained in terms of the theory of dislocations developed by Vito Volterra in 1905. The insight was critical in developing the modern science of solid mechanics.

[edit] Philosophy of science

From the mid-1930s, Polanyi began to articulate his opposition to the prevailing positivist account of science, arguing that it failed to recognise the part played by tacit knowledge and the creative role played by the imagination. He viewed positivism as encouraging some to believe that scientific research ought to be directed by the State. He drew attention to what happened to genetics in the Soviet Union, once the doctrines of Trofim Lysenko gained political approval. Polanyi, like Friedrich Hayek, supplied reasons why it is desirable to live within a free society.

Polanyi criticised the notion of absolute objectivity and acknowledges the importance of inherited practices, ideas which were to influence the thought and work of Thomas Kuhn in the 1960s. His philosophical ideas are most fully expressed in the Gifford lectures he gave in 1951–52 at the University of Aberdeen which resulted in the book Personal Knowledge.

[edit] Economics

Polanyi, like Hayek, believed that a free market facilitates the use of tacit knowledge within a society. This helps society to self-organize, facilitating the pursuit of various goals. Polanyi's ideas on economics are elaborated in his book The Logic of Liberty.

[edit] Professional honours

Polanyi was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.

[edit] Family

Michael Polanyi's son, John Charles Polanyi, is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, Canada. In 1986 John Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry [1].

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

Polanyi, M (1946) Science, Faith, and Society ISBN 0-226-67290-5
Polanyi, M (1951) The Logic of Liberty ISBN 0-226-67296-4
Polanyi, M (1964) Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy ISBN 0-226-67288-3
Polanyi, M (1967) The Tacit Dimension ISBN 0-8446-5999-1 (1983 Doubleday reprint)
Polanyi, M & Prosch, H (1975) Meaning ISBN 0-226-67294-8

[edit] Further reading

Sheldon Richmond, Aesthetic Criteria: Gombrich and the Philosophies of Science of Popper and Polanyi. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1994, 152 pp. ISBN 90-5183-618-X.

Drusilla Scott, Everyman Revived: The Common Sense of Michael Polanyi. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995, 216 pp., ISBN 0-8028-4079-5.

Richard Gelwick, The Way of Discovery, An Introduction to the Thought of Michael Polanyi. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2004, 181, pp. ISBN 1-59244-687-6 (English); Taga Shupan,1982. ISBN 4-8115-6075-0 (Japanese).

William Taussig Scott and Martin X. Moleski, Michael Polanyi, Scientist and Philosopher. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005, 364, pp. ISBN-13-978-0-19-517433-5, ISBN 0-19-517433-X