ABSTRACT

This article fittingly summarises Michael Polanyi's philosophy of science over the years since his first publication on the subject, 'The value of the inexact' in 1936. Different branches of science are based on different ways of seeing. Scientists speculating about strange things in nature act on a similar assumption. They try to interpret the facts they know, and go on collecting more facts, in the hope that these reveals a coherence that is of interest to science. Science is the result of an integration, similar to that of common perception. It establishes hitherto unknown coherences in nature. Genius is known for two faculties which may seem incompatible. Genius is a gift of inspiration, poets back to Homer have asked their Muse for inspiration, and scientists back to Archimedes have acknowledged the coming of a bright idea as an event that suddenly visited them.