ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the contours of both Michael Polanyi’s critical and his constructive philosophical ideas, focusing on his social and political perspective and its interface with his account of science. Polanyi contended the modern turn in philosophy was a misstep leading ultimately to a false narrative about science whose cultural impact has brought nihilism, violence, and totalitarianism in the twentieth century. Polanyi’s constructive “post-critical” alternative perspective focused on a discovery-centered account of science and a broadly reframed understanding of the activity of human knowing and the nature of human knowledge. But Polanyi wove with his account of science clear ideas about the social and political organization of society which could best promote science and a modern society shaped by science. Ultimately, he outlined a vision for what he termed a “society of explorers”.
