Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher

by William Taussig Scott, Martin X. Moleski

Michael Polanyi was one of the great figures of European intellectual life in the 20th century. A highly acclaimed physical chemist in the first period of his career who became a celebrated philosopher after World War II, Polanyi taught in Germany, England, and the United States and associated with many of the leading intellects of his time. His biography has remained unwritten partly because his many and scattered interests in a wide variety of fields, including six subfields of physical chemistry, epistemology, economics, patent law, social and political theory, aesthetics, and theology. This long-awaited volume will be the definitive resource on Polanyi and his work.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography

394 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Martin Moleski]

I co-authored this book with Bill Scott. I am very pleased with it, but I'm not going to rate it. I imagine that I've read it about two dozen times or so. Some parts of the book are better than others. Bill became incapable of rewriting what he had written. I cut his manuscript from 293,000 words to 158,000 and thoroughly reorganized it. It was a once-in-a-lifetime project. I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I could tackle this kind of project again.