Proper Confidence by Lesslie Newbigin - Part Four - Michael Polanyi

Proper Confidence by Lesslie Newbigin – Part Four
Setting the groundwork Descartes set out to prove God through philosophy, not theology. His framework is the basis of modernity. He reinforces the duality of mind from the rest of the body.

After this Newbigin uses the work of a scientific philosopher named Michael Polanyi. Polanyi thinks that the idea of pure science: being totally and logically working towards absolute truth is an illusion. Polanyi thinks that the idea that scientists are objective is impossible. Scientists are personally committed to what they do. They cannot, and perhaps should not be objective. He states in summary, “But this does not make our understanding subjective. Comprehension is neither an arbitrary act nor a passive experience, but a responsible act claiming universal validity. Such knowledge is indeed objective in the sense of establishing contact with a hidden reality, contact that is defined as the condition for anticipating an indeterminate range of as yet unknown (and perhaps yet inconceivable) true implications. It seems reasonable to describe this fusion of the personal and the objective as personal knowledge.” (Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, pp. vii-viii) So Polanyi thinks that despite the personal feelings of the scientist objective truths can be obtained.

Newbigin thinks this very relevant. He thinks our definition of certainty is flawed. (I’m not sure I totally follow him here.) Christians who have inwardly accepted the three dualisms I mentioned before (that came from this book) will have a wrong idea of what it means to be certain of one’s faith.

I admit to not quite understanding all that Newbigin is saying. I do not think I have yet really understood how much my scheme of thought is based on the Greek philosophical understandings. Newbigin wants to show us that faith and doubt are not mutually exclusive.

I like that statement by Einstein. I had never heard it before. It is worth repeating. “The statements of mathematics are only certain when they make no contact with reality.” Newtonian physics turns out to be like that. F = mv turns out only to be an approximation in the real world. It works in most situations but as you approach the speed of light things change. Also with very small particles things are different.

At that SVS conference I went to last week we had a couple of young scientists give papers, one appealing to us to accept evolution the other appealing to us to accept the theory of global warming as fact and act accordingly. Polanyi speaks of the passionate personal commitment of scientists to their work. These two young scientists were exhibits A and B. The first lady made a very telling statement during Q & A. “These experiments are my babies, I love them.” Both of these people firmly believed what they were telling us. But in the real world their “facts” can be doubted, just as the “fact” that Jesus died and rose can be doubted too.

Newbigin thinks that Polanyi’s work on knowing facts which he applies to scientists is closely analogous to what a Christian does when he works to prove his faith in Jesus. Both start with assumptions and both cannot totally be stripped of all preconceived beliefs which come from our culture.