Meaning is a philosophical work by Michael Polanyi, completed with the collaboration of Harry Prosch, that explores how humans create, understand, and transmit meaning across language, culture, art, science, and religion. Building on Polanyi’s earlier ideas about tacit knowledge, the book argues that meaning cannot be reduced to formal rules or purely objective systems. Polanyi and Prosch examine symbolism, myth, ritual, and tradition, emphasizing the personal and participatory dimensions of knowing. The authors challenge reductionist approaches to knowledge and assert that meaning arises through lived experience, commitment, and shared cultural frameworks. Regarded as an important late work in Polanyi’s intellectual legacy, Meaning is widely read in philosophy, theology, sociology, and intellectual history.
