Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical

Volume 20, Issue 3, 1993/1994

Araminta Stone Johnston
Pages 16-28

Theory, Rationality, and Relativism

This essay returns to the Azande tribe of Africa, discussed by Polanyi (in Personal Knowledge) and others, in order to rethink the issues of rationality and irrationality and of essentialism and relativism, and to consider what these issues mean in our actual lives as daily we make epistemological and moral judgements.