In fact, the preponderance of empirical data supported the proposition that the sun orbited around the earth, not Copernicus' heliocentric theory. Objectivity is the capacity to make the creative imaginative leap that synthesizes the data into a comprehensive, rational theoretical structure that can be shown to be true from numerous perspectives beyond simply the logical perspective that one has on the empirical data. The triadic structure of personal knowledge distinguishes Polanyi's epistemology from both objectivist epistemologies and subjectivist epistemologies. An objectivist epistemology rejects the vital role of the knower in interpreting or comprehending the empirical data. A subjectivitst epistemology rejects the empirical data as contributing to any ultimate meaning.
Personal knowledge is characterized by a bipolar commitment .
This commitment has both a personal and a universal component. While tacit knowledge can be possessed by itself, explicit knowledge must rely on being tacitly understood and applied. Hence, all knowledge is either tacit or tacit knowledge . Humans rely upon elements from their social location, tradition, and community in order to affirm that what they believe is knowledge. Second , the knower in postcritical perspective is not an individualistic knower but rather he is happed by and relies for validation upon the community and its culture, which the knower embodies.