I’ve finally made some time to read Michael Polanyi in more detail. Here is Polanyi on scientific materialism, from the essay “Science and the Modern Crisis” in Scientific Thought and Social Reality (he is speaking here particularly about Marxism):
When our intellect convinces us, backed by the authority of science, that our morality is pointless, and teaches us that we can achieve everything to which morality aspires merely by letting loose our animal forces – then our morality is converted into scientific bestiality. That is the picture of the modern fanatic, the modern party man; aloof, and supremely confident of possessing a superior knowledge of reality; cruel and unscrupulous; merciless torture and death.