Polanyi

Resignation was ever the fount of man's strength and new hope. Man accepted the reality of death and built the meaning of his bodily life upon it. He resigned himself to the truth that he had a soul to lose and that there was worse than death, and founded his freedom upon it. He resigns himself, in our time, to the reality of society which means the end of that freedom. But again, life springs from ultimate resignation. Uncomplaining acceptance of the reality of society gives man indomitable courage and strength to remove all removable injustice and unfreedom. As long as he is true to his task of creating more abundant freedom for all, he need not fear that either power or planning will turn against him and destroy the freedom he is building by their instrumentality. This is the meaning of freedom in a complex society; it gives us all the certainty that we need.
对自由的渴求，是否来源于对灵魂得到救赎的渴望（Weber，新教伦理）？
中国人似乎是先体认到社会的存在，才逐渐开始思考个人的价值。这是否也是一个颇为顺理成章的过程，又该如何理解呢？
我们面临着一个在复杂社会中探寻自由意义的命题，而这命题，是与历史上下文紧密关联的，不能把西方“信仰产生自由”的观点照搬过来。波兰尼自己恐怕也没有想到，他1941年没能成功的预言，至今仍有如此深远的影响。谁能断言我们不是在自由主义盛衰的另一个百年循环之中呢？