Michael Polanyi: The University and the Technological State

Abstract

The problem of the intellectual independence of the university within a technologically oriented society, raised again recently by G.P. Grant, was one of the problems which motivated Polanyi's enquiry into the foundations of knowledge. The key elements of his resultant attempt to supersede objectivist accounts of science are isolated, and evaluated as an instance of political " theory" as discussed by Voegelin. Polanyi's final position is judged to be partially adequate to meeting the dilemmas that Grant identifies.