Personal Knowledge

Polanyi’s argument that the ideal of wholly detached, impersonal knowledge is incoherent: scientific knowing depends irreducibly on skills that cannot be fully stated, on judgements of significance the knower makes and commits to, and on tacit knowledge acquired the way a craft is. He is not arguing for subjectivism — the commitment is to something held to be true — but for a post-critical account in which the personal participation of the knower is a condition of objectivity rather than a contaminant of it.

Why it’s on the list: It sits near the end of the epistemology sub-section, paired with Polanyi’s The Republic of Science — the counterweight to the section’s unifying and formalizing accounts, and the reason the curriculum treats knowledge as something people do rather than something stored.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Science, Technology, and Epistemology. Shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription, with the four parts and sixteen sub-sections, is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
• Michael Polanyi — the author.
• Epistemology — the book’s central target and contribution.
• Science — scientific practice as the case study.
• Innovation — tacit knowledge as the part of know-how that does not transfer by writing it down.