Ken and list:
First, I would like to annotate your, Ken's, recommendation in the following SNIP,
<SNIP>
Those who are interested in Polanyi’s work will also find Mary Jo Nye’s _Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science_ useful, along with the excellent biographies on Polanyi by Mark Mitchell titled _Michael Polanyi: The Art of Knowing_, and by William Taussig Scott and Martin Moleski titled _Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher_. The theologian and philosopher Drusilla Scott has also written two excellent books, _Everyman Revived. The Common Sense of Michael Polanyi._ and _Michael Polanyi_.
<SNIP>
with two personal observations:
First, I found that reading Mark Mitchell's book _Michael Polanyi: the art of knowing_ a very helpful companion to read WHILE I was reading Polanyi's _Personal Knowledge_ and _The Tacit Dimension_. My copy of Mitchell's book is still crammed full of post-it notes referencing Polanyi's topics in those two books.
Second, that I too found reading _Personal Knowledge_ was essential to understanding _The Tacit Dimension_ even though I, like many others, found the smaller _The Tacit Dimension_ (which was first a series of lectures given at my alma mater if I recall, the Terry Lectures) more relevant to design. Ken and I have never discussed this, I'm affirming the quality of his suggestions from my own eperience years ago.
I hope this encourages others to read Polanyi by narrowing down Ken's usual voluminous list of excellent options to three I found very helpful, particularly when read together.
Yet I dare to add another reading, particularly relevant to design, and based on Polanyi's own recommendation. He said his short 1966 article "The Creative Imagination" cleared up some things offered in the Terry Lectures. Terry Love may like that "The Creative Imagination" first appeared in Chemical Engineering News. I encourage designers to read it. As a teaser, Polanyi uses an example of how we see things to make a point.
I will not comment on the subsequent exchange between Terry and Ken other than to say that Ken's original post was on-target in pointing to Polanyi in that reading Polanyi has led many to substantial insight, dare I say knowledge, about knowledge: an experience which is clearly not adequately explained by physiological conditions. For example, what 'causes' a link to suddenly occur between stored/remembered physiological conditions? Or, quoting Polanyi from the article just noted, "Science is based on clues that have a bearing on reality: - These clues are not fully specifiable - (and to my example above) Nor is the process of integration which connects them fully definable."
One final teaser. I have been proposing to my design students and colleagues in practice to stop thinking of problems and instead imagine or envision the preferred state. This fits well with Polanyi's article just mentioned in which he discusses Plato's "problem" problem in _Meno_. I believe the vision of the preferred state draws our thinking, like a weight going down a slope, to an unknown 'solution.' You need to read it in Polanyi (page 88) to make any sense of this I'm afraid, that's the nature of a teaser.
Best...
Mike Zender
University of Cincinnati
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