Polanyi’s Copernican Realism: Content, Reception, and Relation to Three Contemporary Realisms

This chapter examines existing interpretations of the most widely commented-upon aspect of Michael Polanyi’s metaphysics, his metaphysical realism. I argue that his position ought to be taken as a form of Copernicanism and then put his distinctive Copernican realism into conversation with contemporary approaches to metaphysical realism including Ontic Structural Realism, Object-Oriented Ontology, and neo-Aristotelian hylomorphism. This chapter thus begins to make clear the relevance of debates within Polanyi studies for the broader sphere of contemporary metaphysical exploration.