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When Science Gets Personal: an Analysis of Scientific Practices According to Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn

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When Science Gets Personal: an Analysis of Scientific Practices According to Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn When Science Gets Personal: An Analysis of Scientific Practices According to Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn by Edmund Kwok-Fai Lo A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Regis College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Theology awarded by Regis College and the University of Toronto. © Copyright by Edmund Kwok-Fai Lo 2019 When Science Gets Personal: An Analysis of Scientific Practices According to Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn Edmund Kwok-Fai Lo Master of Theology Regis College and the University of Toronto 2019 Abstract An examination of scientific practices according to Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn reveals a unique involvement of scientists on a personal level. Such a personal involvement reveals the teleology behind scientific practices through the intentions of the scientists. According to Polanyi, scientists are in search of truth in reality; for Kuhn, scientists strive to solve scientific problems as puzzles. Such differences are reflected in a potential science-religion dialogue: A Polanyian approach can find common ground with religion, while a Kuhnian approach either leads to a confrontation or a parting of ways with religion due to unresolvable conflicts. By using Polanyi’s interpretive framework that is personal knowledge, the personal nature of scientific practices overlaps with the personal nature of religious practices, with the common ground being the truth-seeking person. ii Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Michael Polanyi ....................................................................................... 5 Personal Knowledge ................................................................................. 5 The Structure of Skills .................................................................. 5 The Awareness in the Performance of a Skill: Polanyi on Focal and Subsidiary Awareness ................................................................... 6 Subsidiary Awareness and the Beginning of “Personal” ................ 7 Beliefs and Rules in Scientific Practices ........................................ 9 Neither Subjective Nor Objective ................................................ 10 Human Passions as Motivations ............................................................. 12 Intellectual Passion ..................................................................... 12 Heuristic Passion ........................................................................ 14 Persuasive Passion ...................................................................... 15 Summary of Motivations............................................................. 16 Scientific Community............................................................................. 18 Master-Apprentice ...................................................................... 18 Scientist-Scientist ....................................................................... 19 Tradition ..................................................................................... 20 Summary ................................................................................................ 22 Chapter Two: Thomas Kuhn ......................................................................................... 23 Normal Science and Paradigms .............................................................. 23 Paradigms Versus Rules .............................................................. 24 Anomaly and Crisis ................................................................................ 26 Anomaly ..................................................................................... 26 Crisis and Emergence of Scientific Discoveries........................... 26 Response to Crisis ....................................................................... 27 iii Scientific Revolution .............................................................................. 29 Why “Revolution”? ..................................................................... 29 The Necessity of Revolutions ...................................................... 30 Paradigm Shift as a Change of Worldview .................................. 32 Resolutions of Scientific Revolutions .......................................... 32 Aim of Normal Science .......................................................................... 34 Motivation: To Solve Puzzles ................................................................. 35 Puzzles and Parameters ............................................................... 36 Scientific Practices and Community ....................................................... 38 Summary ................................................................................................ 39 Chapter Three: Critical Engagement of Polanyi and Kuhn............................................. 41 On Scientific Practices: Similarities Between Polanyi and Kuhn ................. 41 Motivations and Passions ............................................................ 41 The Authority of the Scientific Community ................................ 42 On Scientific Practices: Differences Between Polanyi and Kuhn ............ 44 Scientific Progress ...................................................................... 44 Continuity or Rupture?................................................................ 46 An Evolutionary Kind of Progress .............................................. 47 Teleology of Scientific Practices ................................................. 48 Suitable Analogy to Describe Scientists? .................................... 53 Summary ................................................................................................ 55 Chapter Four: Science and Religion, Matters of Faith ................................................... 57 The Silos of Kuhn .................................................................................. 57 Kuhn in Theology .................................................................................. 59 Polanyi: Truth, Reality and Theology ..................................................... 62 Vocation................................................................................................. 64 Personal Knowledge and Theology ........................................................ 66 From Scientific to Religious Practices .................................................... 68 Summary ................................................................................................ 72 iv Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 73 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 76 v Introduction Given the influence of scientific progress on human lives and society, exploring the prospect of a dialogue between science and religion becomes ever more pertinent from the perspective of theologians. Such prospect is especially important in the face of popular portrayals that do injustice to both science and religion. A lack of understanding fosters over-simplification1: Just as it is unhelpful to consider “religion” as a monolithic entity in which everyone believes in the same way, it is equally unhelpful to consider “science” in general terms that turns out to be far removed from the ways in which science is actually practiced. The Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century proves to be an important period in which scholars begin to understand science in different ways. For instance, scholars from the German and British scientific circles begin to focus on methodological issues in science, an effort that eventually gives rise to logical positivism, with an emphasis on the roles of logic and mathematics along with the abandonment of metaphysics2. Within the same period, other scholars begin to explore the role of history in how we consider science: The historical context does not merely function as background information but rather as an integral part in which scientific discoveries are to be understood. The shift can also be seen as a turn away from a matter-of-fact presentation of scientific discoveries: Such a presentation is akin to one that is typically seen in an encyclopedia, 1 Admittedly, popular works of prominent anti-religion scientists (such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Jerry A. Coyne) and controversial topics such as arguing for a young earth tend to attract more public attention; nevertheless, such opinions highlight only a small percentage of views and cannot be considered as representative of a consensus amongst scientists. 2 The philosophical positions taken by scholars from the German scientific circles are diverse, with some taking inspirations from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and adopting a view that scientific knowledge is not relativistic but rather absolute; others side more with Ernst Mach and adopt a position that rejects any kind of a priori elements in how knowledge is gained in general, and particularly in scientific knowledge. The Kantian and Machian schools of thought – especially the Machian – are influential in laying the groundwork for the development of logical positivism from the Vienna Circle. Frederick Suppe, ‘The Search for Philosophic Understanding of Scientific Theories’, in The
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