Contact with Reality: Michael Polanyi's Realism and Why It Matters

A philosophical monograph that matters to the world, and to everyday life.

Excerpt

Is knowledge discovered, or just invented? Can we ever get outside ourselves to know how reality is in itself, independent of us? Philosophical realism raises the question whether in our knowing we connect with an independent reality—or only connect with our own mental constructs.
 
Far from being a silly parlor game, the question impacts our lives concretely and deeply. Modern Western culture has been infected with antirealism and the doubt, skepticism, subjectivism, relativism, and atheism which attends it—not to mention distrust and arbitrary (mis)use of reality.
 
Premier scientist-turned-philosopher Michael Polanyi stepped aside from research to offer an innovative account of knowing that takes its cue from how discovery actually happens. Polanyi defied the antirealism of the twentieth century, sounding a ringing confidence in his repeated claim that in discovery, we know we have made contact with reality because "we have a sense of the possibility of indeterminate future manifestations." And that sense marks contact with reality, because it is the way reality is: abundant, generous, and fraught with as-yet-unnameable possibilities. Michael Polanyi’s innovative but often unsung philosophical proposals directly subvert the myopic but strident presumptions of our age about knowledge and the real.
 
This book examines that distinctive claim, contrasting it to the wider philosophical discussions regarding realism and antirealism in the recent decades. It shows why Polanyi's outlook is superior, and why that matters, not just to scientific discoverers, but to us all.

Order your copy:
From my publisher: Cascade Books, an imprint of ​Wipf and Stock
From my hometown bookstore! Bookmarx Books
United States and other countries: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play
Germany: Bol.de, Thalia

Praise for Contact with Reality

"In this lively book, Esther Lightcap Meek does more than simply make a compelling case for Polanyi's realism in the context of dominant epistemologies and philosophies of science; she also brings out a beautiful dimension of Polanyi's thought that is not often seen, deepening its metaphysical underpinnings through creative engagement with contemporary thinkers. This book makes a much-needed contribution to the reception of Polanyi—and offers a fresh, new way to think about reason more generally."

D. C. Schindler, Associate Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology
​Pontifical John Paul II Institute

“In this inspiring work, Meek brings us back to the most fundamental point of all: ‘the natural trust and communion with reality that lies at the heart of humanness.’”

Oliver Davies, Professor of Christian Doctrine
​King's College London

“Justifiably renowned for her previous explorations of the knowing process, Meek here guides us expertly through Michael Polanyi's epistemology and commends to us a renewed and humble appreciation of the generosity of reality itself. In an era of ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternative facts,’ this account of how we may discover the real is very welcome indeed.”

Murray Rae, Professor
University of Otago, New Zealand

"Meek's fans will welcome this extension of her covenant epistemology to the metaphysics of realism, in careful conversation with contemporary philosophy. Polanyi's claim that knowing always bears indeterminate future manifestations is her theme, and it reaches an exciting climax in her comparison of Polanyi with Catholic thinkers Schindler and von Balthasar. This is an original, important contribution to preserving Mystery and furthering hope in the modern age, and deserves the widest readership."

David Rutledge, Pitts Professor emeritus of Religion, Furman University
​Past President, The Polanyi Society