Considering Historical and Philosophical Evidences of Michael Polanyi's Influence on Thomas Kuhn

Usually The Structure of Scientific Revolution is known as a turning point in the philosophy of science. However، rather than Kuhn، there have been other philosophers who have tried to shed light on infirmity points of empirical philosophies، some of them have even tried to suggest alternative solutions. Michael Polanyi is one of these latter philosophers who، just before the publication of The Structure، has brought ideas so similar to those of Kuhn''s، in his philosophical works especially in his Personal Knowledge. These similarities are so much that Kuhn has even been accused to plagiarism on Polanyi''s opinions. In this paper، we are going to take this case into consideration by studying certain historical evidences which imply such an influence; comparing the original texts of their books; and finally، bringing what others have said in this regard. On the other hand، such a consideration can provide us an opportunity to know Polanyi better، especially his metaphysics which is radically different from Kuhn’s.