Order·Liberty·Belief

Being one of the most significant scientist and philosopher in the 20^th century, Michael Polanyi is widely known for his famous Theory of Tacit Knowing, yet apart from which, his effort on persistence of liberty tradition is also not to be neglected. Started from academic self-government, Polanyi' s discuss is extended to liberty of both economy and legacy, even to the entire society, while in all these texts spontaneous order can be regarded as its core conception, running through all his discourse.It is due to these considerations that I orientate my research on Planyi's spontaneous order. Firstly, it will be easier to catch and clarify Polanyi's core idea on liberalism if it is set to be a commencement as well as a frame. Next, it is because a comparison between Planyi's idea and other contemporary masterpieces like Popper's and Hayek's may help our research on development of liberalism in the 20th century.Written below is the basic frame of my dissertation.The first chapter concludes Polanyi' s categorization of order, namely dynamic order and planned order, polycentricity order and commanding order, spontaneous order and corporate order. Thus a clear definition of spontaneous order is achieved, and characterization of these three levels can be made.The second chapter put forward writer's idea that Polanyi was doing his research with an intention of persisting on the western tradition of liberalism.The third chapter starts from a clarification of Polanyi's discussion on liberty in pure science, to a conclusion that (scientific) belief is the fiduciary of liberty both of science and society, through writer's exploration on academic liberty of scientists and academic self-government of scientific communities.In the last chapter, the writer exhibit how Planyi applied his spontaneous order into fields of economy and legacy, and how he discusses the base of a liberal society.From what had already expatiated above, we can see that Planyi' research on spontaneous order can be well-integrated into an entire structure. In this structure Planyi related different social fields like science, economy, judicature and social organization with a key conception, called spontaneous order in his words, using the idea of belief as an essential base. With all these studies Planyi testified that, underlying in this structure, liberty is a consequent result of their development.