[ExI] Polanyi's Personal Coefficient

[John Galt]

Certainly Michael Polanyi is familiar to you guys and you’ve discussed him before. I recently re-read Personal Knowledge (1958) and found his concept of the personal coefficient extremely pertinent. I am contemplating a review of it (70y later!) because I believe the advance of AI has vindicated his thesis that even the most objective knowledge (such as data), still requires a knower who judges.

As you probably know, Polanyi’s personal coefficient is the irreducible contribution of the knower to every act of knowing: facts do not simply arrange and interpret themselves, but are selected, integrated, judged, and ultimately affirmed by a person using experience, tacit knowledge, skill, intuition, and standards that cannot be fully reduced to explicit rules. Even scientific knowledge (and all objective information including data) therefore contains a personal commitment: “I believe this is true, and I am prepared to stand behind that judgment.” All the while remaining fallible and answerable to reality. For Polanyi, this does not make knowledge merely subjective; rather, responsible personal judgment is precisely how human beings reach objective truth claims at all.

(written in ethical collaboration with AI)

--John

johngaltbooks at proton.me
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