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Personal Knowledge

Michael Polanyi

Tacit knowledge / philosophy of science

Polanyi's tacit-knowledge argument reshaped epistemology and underpins critiques of central planning and rationalist politics, giving it broad political relevance.

Synopsis

A philosophy of science arguing that all knowing involves a personal, tacit dimension, so even objective inquiry depends on skilled commitment that cannot be fully formalized.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted work

We know more than we can tell, because skilled judgment relies on tacit knowledge that cannot be reduced to explicit rules, making all knowledge inescapably personal.

It undercuts the ideal of wholly impersonal objectivity, showing that trust, skill, and commitment underlie even science.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with Friedrich Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society.

Reading note

Read it as epistemology with political echoes; the key idea is tacit knowing, which later informs his and Hayek-style critiques of rationalism.

Best paired with

Friedrich Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society

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