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We can consider the impact of Michael Polanyi from various perspectives, because his concerns were so diverse. Here I discuss cases of his concrete influence on the study of humans and their creative, cognitive, and cultural achievements, especially in recent work focused on the tacit dimension: (1) John Gedo's review of the last quarter-century of psychoanalytic monographs; (2) Stephen Toulmin's books on our liberation from modernism and the recovery of reasonableness and humanism; and (3) my own work on how Wittgenstein's skepticism about Russell's overextension of logic shaped the Tractatus. In contrast to a more conceptualized view of Polanyi, I suggest returning to his crucial point: the recognition that we know in ways that “go without saying” in order to develop an empathic understanding of how humans organize and engage in their investigations and creative activities. As soon as we talk of doctrines in isolation, the “isms” we use as shorthand, we weaken our contact with the immediate and tangible. Instead we need to dwell in the
This paper was originally presented at The Polanyi Society conference, “Polanyi's Post-Critical Thought and the Rebirth of Meaning,” held at Loyola University of Chicago, June 8th to 10th, 2001.
Richard Henry Schmitt has a doctorate in the history of culture from the University of Chicago.
experience of our subject and consider how it is reflected in the work. We can take specific steps to accomplish this, attending to the ways that thought is shaped by experience.