by Mark T. Mitchell. I have read a little of it and noticed that Isaiah Berlin with Polanyi: "These Hungarians are strange . . . here is a great scientist giving up the Nobel to write mediocre works of philosophy."Mark Mitchell also notes that Polanyi allowed his subscription to National Review lapse in 1964. Presumably he anticipated the Goldberg-Lopez-Lowry Axis of Cretins in charge there now.
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That Isaiah Berlin should have reproached Polanyi for having abandoned science to deliver himself of "mediocre" works of philosophy is altogether too rich, Isaiah Berlin having himself been a mediocrity among mediocrities as a political philosopher, a discredit to legions of philosophers beneath greatness, who have nevertheless done yeoman work in their disciplines. If Berlin's restatement of the premises of liberal modernity in the terms of the limits of the human condition ("You are stuck with liberalism because man is finite" seems to be the untrue cash-value of his thought.) entitled him to chastise Polanyi, then perhaps we are entitled to speak of a slave-revolt in philosophy having occurred, for values have been revalued, and inverted.
By the way, when will Goldberg's book, Liberal Fascism, be released? I am anxious for a laugh, and to see it panned by those who actually know history and philosophy.
I have it on good authority that Goldberg is almost finished coloring it.
He can accomplish that feat without breaking the crayons or sticking them in his nose?! Wow!
Ouch. I've read some Michael Polanyi's philosophy and thought it was pretty good!
Wow, I just learned that I actually blogged about Michael Polanyi once.
Time passes ... Blog postings pile up ...
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