Polanyi Biographies - Revision history

Moleski: /* Mid-Century Authors */

2018-11-30T08:23:44Z

‎Mid-Century Authors

Moleski: /* Wigner and Hodgkin */

2018-11-30T08:17:51Z

‎Wigner and Hodgkin

Moleski: /* Hodgkin */

2018-11-30T08:14:17Z

‎Hodgkin

Moleski: /* Mid-Century Authors */

2018-11-30T08:10:35Z

‎Mid-Century Authors

Moleski at 01:58, 24 February 2015

2015-02-24T01:58:13Z

Moleski: /* Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher */

2015-02-23T02:54:15Z

‎Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher

Moleski: /* Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher */

2015-02-23T02:46:58Z

‎Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher

Moleski: /* Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher */

2015-02-23T02:38:17Z

‎Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher

Moleski at 02:25, 23 February 2015

2015-02-23T02:25:53Z

Moleski at 02:24, 23 February 2015

2015-02-23T02:24:18Z

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 Polanyi wrote a short autobiography for ''Mid-Century Authors'' that is preserved in the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.POLANYI Regenstein (Box 38, Folder 8).]
-This was published in ''World Authors, 1950-1970: A Companion Volume to Twentieth Century Authors'' (1975) 1151-1153.
+This was published in ''World Authors, 1950-1970: A Companion Volume to Twentieth Century Authors'' (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1975) 1151-1153.
 == Wigner and Hodgkin ==

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 == Wigner and Hodgkin ==
-Eugene P. Wigner and Robin A. Hodgkin wrote a superb obituary for the Royal Society: "Michael Polanyi 1891-1976," [http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/roybiogmem/23/413 ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'' 23 (1977) 413-448.]
+Eugene P. Wigner and Robin A. Hodgkin wrote a superb obituary for the Royal Society: "Michael Polanyi 1891-1976," ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'' 23 (1977) 413-448.
 == Links ==

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 This was published in ''World Authors, 1950-1970: A Companion Volume to Twentieth Century Authors'' (1975) 1151-1153.
-== Hodgkin ==
+== Wigner and Hodgkin ==
 == Links ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:10, 30 November 2018
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	== Mid-Century Authors ==		== Mid-Century Authors ==
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		+	Polanyi wrote a short autobiography for ''Mid-Century Authors'' that is preserved in the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.POLANYI Regenstein (Box 38, Folder 8).]
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		+	This was published in ''World Authors, 1950-1970: A Companion Volume to Twentieth Century Authors'' (1975) 1151-1153.
		+
	== Hodgkin ==		== Hodgkin ==

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-Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) was a Hungarian from a non-observant Jewish family; his mother was called "Aunt of the Hungarian Revolution." He was baptized as a Catholic in 1919, but apparently only as a matter of convenience--he wanted to live and work in Germany, and it was better to have a Christian identity on one's passport rather than Jewish. Later in life, he associated most closely with the Protestant point of view. In his professional career, he began as a medical doctor, because that was the only scientific degree he could take in Budapest, but shortly switched to studying physical chemistry. He specialized in the adsorption of gases, X-ray crystallography, and reaction kinetics.
+Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) was a Hungarian from a non-observant Jewish family; his mother was called "Aunt of the Hungarian Revolution." He was baptized as a Roman Catholic in 1919, but apparently only as a matter of convenience--he wanted to live and work in Germany, and it was better to have a Christian identity on one's passport rather than Jewish. Later in life, he identified himself most closely with the Protestant point of view, although he never took Communion with any Christian denomination. In his professional career, he began as a medical doctor, because that was the only scientific degree he could take in Budapest, but shortly switched to studying physical chemistry. He specialized in the adsorption of gases, X-ray crystallography, and reaction kinetics.
-In 1947, Polanyi gave up his scientific research and was granted a chair in the humanities. He concerned himself mainly with the philosophy of science, economics, and sociology. In 1986, his son, John, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for carrying on the kind of work his father had begun in reaction kinetics.
+In 1948, Polanyi gave up his scientific research and was granted a chair in the in the Faculty of Economics and Social Studies. He concerned himself mainly with the philosophy of science, economics, and sociology. In 1986, his son, John, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for carrying on the kind of work his father had begun in reaction kinetics.
-In 1958, Polanyi published Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. In it he outlined the structure of an epistemology based upon tacit knowledge--those things we know that cannot be completely communicated by words. He claims that "all knowledge is tacit or rooted in tacit knowledge." If faith is a way of knowing, and if what Polanyi says is true, then faith must be "tacit or rooted in tacit knoweldge."
+In 1958, Polanyi published ''Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy.'' In it he outlined the structure of an epistemology based upon tacit knowledge--those things we know that cannot be completely communicated by words. He claims that "all knowledge is tacit or rooted in tacit knowledge." If faith is a way of knowing, and if what Polanyi says is true, then faith must be "tacit or rooted in tacit knoweldge."
 == ''Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher'' ==
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 This biography was begun by Bill Scott in 1977. He worked on the research and writing for seventeen years with his wife, Ann, and his assistant, Monika Tobin.  By 1994, he had a complete manuscript in 26 chapters that ran to 293,000 words and filled roughly 1200 pages in typescript.
-Many members of the Polanyi Society read this manuscript and returned comments, but Scott was unable to revise what he had written.  Late in 1996, Ann Scott agreed to allow Moleski to act as co-author and make the necessary revisions in the biography.  In 1997, Moleski produced a final polished edition of Scott's work; it is available from Scott's archives at the University of Nevada at Reno.
+Several members of the Polanyi Society read this manuscript and returned comments, but Scott, due to the onset of Parkinson's Disease, was unable to revise what he had written.  Late in 1996, Ann Scott agreed to allow Moleski to act as co-author and make the necessary revisions in the biography.  In 1997, Moleski produced a final polished edition of Scott's work; it is available from Scott's archives at the University of Nevada at Reno.
 Moleski produced several drafts from 1998 until 2001, when Oxford agreed to review the manuscript.  The final cuts requested by the Oxford editors brought the length down to 157,000 words.
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 :: 428 pages | 17 halftones, 2 line drawings | 6 x 9 | © 2011
-::: In Michael Polanyi and His Generation, Mary Jo Nye investigates the role that Michael Polanyi and several of his contemporaries played in the emergence of the social turn in the philosophy of science. This turn involved seeing science as a socially based enterprise that does not rely on empiricism and reason alone but on social communities, behavioral norms, and personal commitments. Nye argues that the roots of the social turn are to be found in the scientific culture and political events of Europe in the 1930s, when scientific intellectuals struggled to defend the universal status of scientific knowledge and to justify public support for science in an era of economic catastrophe, Stalinism and Fascism, and increased demands for applications of science to industry and social welfare.
+::: In ''Michael Polanyi and His Generation,'' Mary Jo Nye investigates the role that Michael Polanyi and several of his contemporaries played in the emergence of the social turn in the philosophy of science. This turn involved seeing science as a socially based enterprise that does not rely on empiricism and reason alone but on social communities, behavioral norms, and personal commitments. Nye argues that the roots of the social turn are to be found in the scientific culture and political events of Europe in the 1930s, when scientific intellectuals struggled to defend the universal status of scientific knowledge and to justify public support for science in an era of economic catastrophe, Stalinism and Fascism, and increased demands for applications of science to industry and social welfare.
 ::: At the center of this struggle was Polanyi, who Nye contends was one of the first advocates of this new conception of science. Nye reconstructs Polanyi’s scientific and political milieus in Budapest, Berlin, and Manchester from the 1910s to the 1950s and explains how he and other natural scientists and social scientists of his generation—including J. D. Bernal, Ludwik Fleck, Karl Mannheim, and Robert K. Merton—and the next, such as Thomas Kuhn, forged a politically charged philosophy of science, one that newly emphasized the social construction of science.

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 Moleski produced several drafts from 1998 until 2001, when Oxford agreed to review the manuscript.  The final cuts requested by the Oxford editors brought the length down to 157,000 words.
-* Nye
+== ''Michael Polanyi and His Generation'' ==
-* Mid-Century Authors
+[[File:Nye-mp-coverjpg.jpg|thumb]]
-* Hodgkin
 == Links ==

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 == ''Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher'' ==
+[[File:Cover.jpg|thumb]]
 :; William T. Scott and Martin X. Moleski, SJ