I shall suggest, on the contrary, that all communication relies, to a noticeable extent on evoking knowledge that we cannot tell, and that all our knowledge of mental processes, like feelings or conscious intellectual activities, is based on a knowledge which we cannot tell. (Michael Polanyi)
Admittedly, scientific authority is not distributed evenly throughout the body of scientists; some distinguished members of the profession predominate over others of a more junior standing. (Michael Polanyi)
The first thing to make clear is that scientists, freely making their own choice of problems and pursuing them in the light of their own personal judgment, are in fact co-operating as members of a closely knit organization. (Michael Polanyi)
Theories of evolution must provide for the creative acts which brought such theories into existence. (Michael Polanyi)
But even physics cannot be defined from an atomic topography. (Michael Polanyi)
Admittedly, the body of scientists, as a whole, does uphold the authority of science over the lay public. It controls thereby also the process by which young men are trained to become members of the scientific profession. (Michael Polanyi)
My title is intended to suggest that the community of scientists is organized in a way which resembles certain features of a body politic and works according to economic principles similar to those by which the production of material goods is regulated. (Michael Polanyi)
No inanimate object is ever fully determined by the laws of physics and chemistry. (Michael Polanyi)
Human beings exercise responsibilities within a social setting and a framework of obligations which transcend the principle of intelligence. (Michael Polanyi)
Responsible choice in a convivial setting controls the indeterminate powers of intelligence and sets the boundary conditions for their applications. (Michael Polanyi)
I hold that the propositions embodied in natural science are not derived by any definite rule from the data of experience, and that they can neither be verified nor falsified by experience according to any definite rule. (Michael Polanyi)
Common experience also tells us that in teaching we rely on an intellectual effort of the learner for recognizing that which we are conveying to him. (Michael Polanyi)
We could not, for example, arrive at a principle like that of entropy without introducing some additional principle, such as randomness, to this topography. (Michael Polanyi)
But the system of prices ruling the market not only transmits information in the light of which economic agents can mutually adjust their actions, it also provides them with an incentive to exercise economy in terms of money. (Michael Polanyi)
Moreover, only a strong and united scientific opinion imposing the intrinsic value of scientific progress on society at large can elicit the support of scientific inquiry by the general public. (Michael Polanyi)