Zoom Discussion
Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time
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In Personal Knowledge (p. 6), Polanyi quipped that his theories might be dismissed by some as "outdated Platonism." In The Metaphysics of Michael Polanyi, Martin Turkis argues that Polanyi’s vision is indeed Platonist, but is by no means outdated. The selected readings for this session (links are below) focus on the importance of metaphysics in Polanyi’s thought, Polanyi’s notion of the comprehensive entity as an ontological fundamental, and the status of Platonism as an explanatory mechanism in the context of Michael Levin’s biological experiments.
1. Martin E. Turkis II, The Metaphysics of Michael Polanyi, pp.116-121 (beginning with the second paragraph on page 116): (1) universal intent and the everyday nature of metaphysics; (2) metaphysical entities as immaterial and abstract; (3) the discovery orientation as a metaphysics of Eros; (4) the ontological aspect of tacit knowing, Copernican realism underpinned by fallibilism.
2. Martin E. Turkis II, The Metaphysics of Michael Polanyi, pp.138-144 (beginning with “Meaning as Being…”): (1) moving toward a more capacious understanding of the comprehension that grounds comprehensive entities; (2) reality as unified and rational, the telic harnessing of subsidiaries in meaning as formal cause and the upward and outward teleological orientation producing IFMs as final cause; (3) potential meaning as attractor, emergence as a shift in modality from potential to actual; (4) the late Polanyi’s broader sense of meaning.
3. Martin E. Turkis II, “Space for a Post-Critical Platonism: A Response” Tradition & Discovery, v. 51, pp. 20-22. The full essay of Turkis’ response to comments on his book by Dale Cannon, Vincent Colapietro, Graham Harman and William M. R. Simpson is HERE.
4. Not to be a primary focus in the discussion, but for those interested, a link to the article about the biological research of Michael Levin referred to in “Space for a Post-Critical Platonism…” as well as to a recent presentation by Levin on related matters.
“Endless forms most beautiful 2.0: teleonomy and the bioengineering of chimaeric and synthetic organisms”
https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/139/4/457/6643577
“Patterns of Form and Behavior Beyond Emergence”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RcW65tBxRA