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Polanyi's Epistemology in the Light of Neuroscience A Review Article

Key Words: Michael Polanyi, Eric Kandel, tacit knowing, implicit memory, explicit memory, habituation, sensitization, anti-Semitism, reductionism, integration, brain plasticity, selective attention. In Search of Memory, Eric Kandel's excellent account of the rise of neuroscience, in which his own research has a prominent place, is reviewed with special attention given to its relation to Michael Polanyi's philosophy. It is found that Polanyi's epistemological theory, although established on quite different grounds, accords well with Kandel' s description of how the brain operates. In particular, Polanyi's theory of tacit knowing seems to be both enriched and validated by Kandel's account of how memory functions. Eric R. Kandel. In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Pp. xv + 510. ISBN 978-0-393-32937-7. $17.95 paperback. How well does Polanyi's thought of half a century ago connect with the ongoing history of research in cognitive science, molecular biology, and understanding of the brain? Eric Kandel's book helps answer that question. It combines autobiography (of interest because he is a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine) with a compelling historical account of step by step progress in understanding the brain and how it works. As a whole, his book is consistent with the general framework provided by Polanyi with respect to such issues as the tacit dimension, the epistemological centrality of integration, and emergence. In American folk culture, when the writing of physicians is mentioned, illegible scrawl is more often the subject than graceful exposition. Kandel's work exemplifies the latter condition rather than the former suspicion. In Search of Memory intersperses fascinating vignettes of life history with concise, clear, and captivating accounts of key advances in neuroscience. Rare is the work that is both so well written and so informative about significant issues. In addition to outstanding prose, the book is blessed with many instructive diagrams and a helpful glossary. Although Polanyi was born a long generation earlier than Kandel (whose date of birth is 1929), their biographical details show they share a good bit in common. They were each born into secular Jewish families in the Austro-Hungarian Empire or its remnants. Each was driven out of the German-speaking world by the incursion of the Nazis - Kandel's family escaped from Vienna just before World War II broke out. Each family emigrated to the Anglo-American world—Kandel's family to New York City. Each man earned a degree in medicine but turned professionally to other fields in scientific research. And both lived a culturally rich life in which issues of responsibility and morality came to explicit expression.