Intellectual passions and their selective function in Michael Polanyi’s Personal knowledge concept of scientific knowledge

Abstract

This paper shows philosophical views of Michael Polanyi, in the context of his greatest work Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. In his study, Polanyi presents the original concept of science and knowledge, which include tacit components, such as: the personal, tacit knowledge, personal engagement, intellectual passions and participation in the scientists community, which shares the same tradition, language, frameworks and culture. All that makes the philosophy of Polanyi situated against the concept of objectivity in science which excludes personal participation in act of knowing and creating knowledge. As one of the most important factors in science formation Polanyi considers intellectual passions, which have heuristic, selective, persuasive functions. The present article is a summary of the main idea of the intellectual passions, in respect of their selective function in science. As Polanyi maintains, scientific passions have a logical function which contributes an indispensable element to science. They charge objects with emotions, making them repulsive or attractive and help distinguish between demonstratable facts which are of scientific interest, and those which are not. Furthermore, scientific passions depend ultimately on a sense of intellectual beauty, which can never be dispassionately defined, as well as the beauty of a work of art or the excellence of a noble action.