Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science

by Mary Jo Nye

In Michael Polanyi and His Generation, Mary Jo Nye investigates the role that Michael Polanyi and several of his contemporaries played in the emergence of the social turn in the philosophy of science. This turn involved seeing science as a socially based enterprise that does not rely on empiricism and reason alone but on social communities, behavioral norms, and personal commitments. Nye argues that the roots of the social turn are to be found in the scientific culture and political events of Europe in the 1930s, when scientific intellectuals struggled to defend the universal status of scientific knowledge and to justify public support for science in an era of economic catastrophe, Stalinism and Fascism, and increased demands for applications of science to industry and social welfare. At the center of this struggle was Polanyi, who Nye contends was one of the first advocates of this new conception of science. Nye reconstructs Polanyi’s scientific and political milieus in Budapest, Berlin, and Manchester from the 1910s to the 1950s and explains how he and other natural scientists and social scientists of his generation—including J. D. Bernal, Ludwik Fleck, Karl Mannheim, and Robert K. Merton—and the next, such as Thomas Kuhn, forged a politically charged philosophy of science, one that newly emphasized the social construction of science.

Genres: Philosophy, Science, History Of Science, History

430 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely fascinating book. Yes, it is organized as a chronological narrative. But in this case, the structure suits the subject.

Michael Polanyi is an astonishing intellectual figure. His arc of change, challenge and complexity is remarkable. This book captures how a physical chemist develops 'science studies.'

I've always been dismissive of 'science studies' and even the sociology of science, but this book demonstrates their value.

Fascinating book.

[Matthew Brown]

Recommended by Heather Douglas at Bielefeld, June 12, 2012 in the context of the origins of Kuhn's thoughts.