Michael Polanyi and Lucian Blaga as Philosophers of Knowledge :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Michael Polanyi and Lucian Blaga as Philosophers of Knowledge ABSTRACT: Polanyi and Blaga are two centennial philosophers who could be compared. They both are philosophers who have abandoned the attempt to analyze science as the form of culture capable of complete objectivity and the language solely in terms of its referential force, to make representational knowledge impersonal and to split fact from value. 1. Polanyi's epistemology Polanyi and Blaga are two centennial philosophers who could be put into comparison. Both are philosophers who have abandoned the attempt to analyze science as the form of culture capable of complete objectivity, to analyze language solely in terms of its referential force, and to make representational knowledge impersonal and to split fact from value. Michael Polanyi affirms the irreducible involvement of personal commitment in the perception and understanding of transpersonal reality. He is against the representational expressivist theory of language. According to his theory all assertion of fact expresses beliefs, and are essentially accompanied by feelings of satisfaction or of desire. The act of knowing includes an appraisal, a personal coefficient that shapes all factual knowledge. Polanyi emphasizes the role of the activity of the knower in the formation of knowledge and also is aware of their variability while insisting that we aim at truth 'with universal intent' 'although we can never quite get there'. His book Personal Knowledge should help to restore science to its rightful place in an integrated culture as part of the whole person's continuing endeavor to make sense of the totality of his experience. 'True' means something different in different societies. The critical period of Western philosophy, opened by Descartes and brought to its coming to an end, and the post-critical era is emerging. Michael Polanyi, it appears to me, is the most important philosophical figure opening up this new direction and delineating its basic elements. Regarding the critical pretensions to have found a way, either through philosophical rationality or by means of scientific method, to a universal perspective, Polanyi points out that thinkers of the critical period have pursued 'a mistaken ideal of objectivity'. Thus, when we claim greater objectivity for Copernican theory, we do imply that its excellence is, not a matter of personal taste on our part, but an inherent quality deserving universal acceptance by rational creatures. We abandon the cruder anthropocentrism of our senses, but only favor of a more ambitious anthropocentrism of our reason (PK p. Michael Polanyi and Lucian Blaga as Philosophers of Knowledge :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays Michael Polanyi and Lucian Blaga as Philosophers of Knowledge ABSTRACT: Polanyi and Blaga are two centennial philosophers who could be compared. They both are philosophers who have abandoned the attempt to analyze science as the form of culture capable of complete objectivity and the language solely in terms of its referential force, to make representational knowledge impersonal and to split fact from value. 1. Polanyi's epistemology Polanyi and Blaga are two centennial philosophers who could be put into comparison. Both are philosophers who have abandoned the attempt to analyze science as the form of culture capable of complete objectivity, to analyze language solely in terms of its referential force, and to make representational knowledge impersonal and to split fact from value. Michael Polanyi affirms the irreducible involvement of personal commitment in the perception and understanding of transpersonal reality. He is against the representational expressivist theory of language. According to his theory all assertion of fact expresses beliefs, and are essentially accompanied by feelings of satisfaction or of desire. The act of knowing includes an appraisal, a personal coefficient that shapes all factual knowledge. Polanyi emphasizes the role of the activity of the knower in the formation of knowledge and also is aware of their variability while insisting that we aim at truth 'with universal intent' 'although we can never quite get there'. His book Personal Knowledge should help to restore science to its rightful place in an integrated culture as part of the whole person's continuing endeavor to make sense of the totality of his experience. 'True' means something different in different societies. The critical period of Western philosophy, opened by Descartes and brought to its coming to an end, and the post-critical era is emerging. Michael Polanyi, it appears to me, is the most important philosophical figure opening up this new direction and delineating its basic elements. Regarding the critical pretensions to have found a way, either through philosophical rationality or by means of scientific method, to a universal perspective, Polanyi points out that thinkers of the critical period have pursued 'a mistaken ideal of objectivity'. Thus, when we claim greater objectivity for Copernican theory, we do imply that its excellence is, not a matter of personal taste on our part, but an inherent quality deserving universal acceptance by rational creatures. We abandon the cruder anthropocentrism of our senses, but only favor of a more ambitious anthropocentrism of our reason (PK p.