Video of the Zoom Session
Michael Polanyi articulated clear and interesting ideas about “totalitarianism,” a term that has become common in both scholarly and popular literature almost fifty years after Polanyi’s death. This zoom discussion will focus on sorting out what Polanyi was pointing to politically and culturally with this term in the middle of the 20th century. Discussion will also undoubtedly include addressing questions such as whether Polanyi’s notions about “totalitarianism” are appropriate for accurately describing some of the political and cultural dynamics in the contemporary world.
The three resources listed below provide some insight into Polanyi’s many comments about “totalitarianism.” Participants in this Zoom session are invited to review this material. Anyone interested can join this Polanyi Society Zoom Discussion.
It is helpful to those planning Zoom sessions if you register your interest in the session; send an e-mail to Phil Mullins ( mullins@missouriwestern.edu ) to indicate interest. As in other recent Zoom sessions, Gus Breytspraak ( gus.breytspraak@ottawa.edu ) will send out a couple of e-mail notices with the link in the week of this session. We will also post the link on the Polanyi Society website during the week in which the session occurs.
Send any questions or suggestions to Phil Mullins and Gus Breytspraak.
- Michael Polanyi’s 1951 one-page review/comment (titled “Totalitarianism”) on Hannah Arendt’s The Burden of Our Time (later republished as The Origins of Totalitarianism).
- Two plus pages of excerpts from “The Magic of Marxism” (with a few notes), an essay published in various versions four times in 1956 and after and which links “totalitarianism,” the loss of “facticity” and “moral inversion.”
- A pre-publication copy of Struan Jacobs’ essay “Michael Polanyi’s Understanding of Totalitarianism Against the Backdrop of Liberal Civilization.” This was recently published in Peter Hartl (ed.), Science, Faith, and Society: New Essays on the Philosophy of Michael Polanyi, 209-233 (Springer, 2024). This is a clear and careful 22-page essay; we will try eventually also to post a link for an AI-generated summary of the Jacobs essay with the notice about this session on the Polanyi Society website.