ABSTRACT
Biology is a participation of the biologist in various levels of commitment of other organisms, usually lower than their self. At these levels chapter acknowledges trueness to type, equipotentiality, operational principles, drives, perception, and animal intelligence, according to standards accepted by him for the organisms in question. This chapter elucidate Polanyi's conception of biology by stating, very simply, some aspects of it and interpreting some assertions of biologists in the light of this statement. Epistemologists sometimes distinguish between knowledge as recognition and knowledge that a proposition is true. The theme of Personal Knowledge may be said to contradict this distinction, in so far as it stresses the element of recognition which is essential to all acts of knowing. The recognition of pattern is essential to all scientific discovery and at one remove therefore to the mastery of any scientific discipline by the student which is a process of discovery for him though not for humanity as a whole.
