The Way of Discovery: An Introduction to the Thought of Michael Polanyi

This book offers the first full exploration of the religious, ethical, and social dimensions of Michael Polanyi's philosophy, and its implications for the crisis of modern culture. Michael Polanyi developed a new way of understanding the process of discovering scientific knowledge - a theory which can alter our notions of ourselves and of existence. In 'The Way of Discovery', Richard Gelwick, a former student of the renowned scientist-turned-philosopher, presents us with a comprehensive and documented introduction to Polanyi's theory of knowledge. Michael Polanyi was born in Budapest in 1891. After a distinguished career as a physical chemist, he turned to philosophy, religion, and social sciences, becoming, by the time of his death in 1976, one of the greatest scientist-philosophers of our century. Polanyi maintained that three centuries of belief in scientific detachment had produced a crisis of culture. Working from his own experience as a scientist, and with an insight from Gestalt psychology, Polanyi asserted that objective scientific knowledge is at bottom personal knowledge - that scientists and artists establish meaning in basically the same way. His ideas call for a new way of thinking and pose a new frontier of thought, a new image of humanity

Richard Gelwick is a leader in the study of the thought of Michael Polanyi since he studied personally with Polanyi, wrote this first book on Polanyi's philosophy, and served as Coordinator of The Polanyi Society for 21 years. He was educated at Southern Methodist University, Yale Divinity School, and the Pacific School of Religion. Now retired in Maine, he is Professor Emeritus and Fellow of the Bioethics Center at the University of New England and Adjunct Professor of Bangor Theological Seminary.