Michael Polanyi Quotes
The first thing to make clear is that scientists, freely making their own choice of problems and pursuing them in the light of their own personal judgment, are in fact co-operating as members of a closely knit organization.
Polanyi, Michael. "The Republic of Science: Its Political and Economic Theory." Minerva, vol. 1, no. 1, 1962, p. 54.
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
To the general public Ballard is a star—the man who found the Titanic. Whereas he acknowledges that this has helped him raise money for science, but it has also caused him problems in the scientific community. Most important scientific work is done by teams and they depend on others who have laid the groundwork before them. Few are the Einsteins and the Fermi’s who on their own produce great scientific achievements.
The English Language has been in use for over 1000 years. English and English Speaking scientists have been active througout that time. Yet at the time that Wulf pointed this out, the actual word "Scientist" had been in use for less than a century.
Michael Polanyi FRS was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He argued that positivism supplies a false account of knowing, which if taken seriously undermines humanity's highest achievements.
