摘要：My own ongoing reflection on the Polanyian understanding of knowing leads me to recommend that we help
people acknowledge and reaccredit authority as a key feature of all human knowing. This recommendation
I support in this essay by showing the following. First, I argue that reliance on authority is unavoidable. The
Polanyian model, along with the complementary insights of a few others, and reflection on human experience,
together show that human knowledge is what it is only by virtue of its normative component. Such normativity,
I argue, requires persons as mentors and as recipients. Second, I describe some of the ins and outs of
responsible reliance on authority in a way that I hope will make it a more palatable and delightful prospect,
and will encourage its skillful employment. I believe that this message offers much needed epistemological
therapy for philosophy and ordinary people today.
关键词：knowing, authority, authoritative guides in knowing, the normative component of all
knowing, persons and pesohnood, the personal, reciprocity, submission, epistemic responsibility.
