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… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
These maxims and the art of interpreting them may be said to constitute the premisses of science but I prefer to call them our… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
We could not, for example, arrive at a principle like that of entropy without introducing some additional principle, such as randomness, to this topography. — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
“A steady recognition that the evils which prevent the fullness of moral development are precisely the elements which are also the source of the… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
“Christianity sedulously fosters, and in a sense permanently satisfies, man's craving for mental dissatisfaction by offering him the comfort of a crucified God.” — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
Of course language manifests a belief only if we use its words with the implied acceptance of their appositeness. — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
The first thing to make clear is that scientists, freely making their own choice of problems and pursuing them in the light of their… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
The information in DNA could no more be reduced to the chemical than could the ideas in a book be reduced to the ink… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
“Sartre puts it, value arises simply from our choices. What we choose, we value simply because we have chosen it (and apparently we remain… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell, — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
The amount of knowledge which we can justify from evidence directly available to us can never be large. The overwhelming proportion of our factual… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
Admittedly, the body of scientists, as a whole, does uphold the authority of science over the lay public. It controls thereby also the process… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
“It was the merit of Gestalt psychology to make us aware of the remarkable performance involved in perceiving shapes. Take, for example, a ball… — Michael Polanyi Copy Share Image
