
Neurath's boat (or Neurath's ship) is a
simile
A simile () is a type of figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit c ...
used in
anti-foundational accounts of
knowledge
Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...
, especially in the
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...
. It was first formulated by
Otto Neurath
Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; ; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in ...
. It is based in part on the
Ship of Theseus
The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other.
In Gre ...
which, however, is standardly used to illustrate other philosophical questions, to do with problems of
identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...
.
It was popularised by
Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine ( ; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century" ...
in ''
Word and Object
''Word and Object'', philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine's most famous work, expands on ideas in ''From a Logical Point of View'' (1953) and reformulates earlier arguments like his attack on the analytic–synthetic distinction from " Two Dogmas ...
'' (1960).
Neurath used the simile in several occasions,
first in "Problems in War Economics" (1913). In "Anti-Spengler" (1921), he wrote:
Neurath's non-foundational analogy of reconstructing piecemeal a ship at sea contrasts with Descartes' much earlier foundationalist analogy—in ''Discourse on the Method
''Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'' () is a philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. It is best known as the source of the famous quotation ...
'' (1637) and ''Meditations on First Philosophy
''Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated'' (), often called simply the ''Meditations'', is a philosophical treatise by René Descartes first published in Latin in 1641. T ...
'' (1641)—of demolishing a building all at once and rebuilding from the ground up. Neurath himself pointed out this contrast.[
The boat was replaced by a ]raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...
in discussions by some philosophers, such as Paul Lorenzen in 1968, Susan Haack
Susan Haack (; born 1945) is a distinguished professor in the humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, professor of philosophy, and professor of law at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
Haack has written on logic ...
in 1974, and Ernest Sosa
Ernest Sosa (; ; born June 17, 1940) is an American philosopher primarily interested in epistemology. Since 2007 he has been Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, but he spent most of his career at Brown University.
...
in 1980. Lorenzen's use of the simile of the raft was a kind of foundationalist modification of Neurath's original, disagreeing with Neurath by asserting that it is possible to jump into the water and to build a new raft while swimming, i.e., to "start from scratch" to build a new system of knowledge.[
Prior to Neurath's simile, ]Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss (philosopher), Paul ...
had used with similar purpose the metaphor of walking on a bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...
: one only takes another step when the ground beneath one's feet begins to give way.
Neurathian bootstrap
Keith Stanovich
Keith E. Stanovich (born 1950) is an American research scientist and psychologist. He is an Emeritus Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto and former Canada Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science. ...
, in his book ''The Robot's Rebellion'', refers to it as a Neurathian bootstrap, using bootstrapping
In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input. Many analytical techniques are often called bootstrap methods in reference to their self-starting or self-supporting ...
as an analogy to the recursive
Recursion occurs when the definition of a concept or process depends on a simpler or previous version of itself. Recursion is used in a variety of disciplines ranging from linguistics to logic. The most common application of recursion is in m ...
nature of revising one's beliefs. A "rotten plank" on the ship, for instance, might represent a meme virus or a junk meme (i.e., a meme that is either maladaptive to the individual, or serves no beneficial purpose for the realization of an individual's life goals). It may be impossible to bring the ship to shore for repairs, therefore one may stand on planks that are not rotten in order to repair or replace the ones that are. At a later time, the planks previously used for support may be tested by standing on other planks that are not rotten:
In this way, people might proceed to examine and revise their beliefs so as to become more rational
Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ...
.[
]
See also
* Belief revision
Belief revision (also called belief change) is the process of changing beliefs to take into account a new piece of information. The formal logic, logical formalization of belief revision is researched in philosophy, in databases, and in artifici ...
* Cognitive development
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult bra ...
* Falsificationism
* Foundherentism
In epistemology, foundherentism is a theory of justification that combines elements from the two rival theories addressing infinite regress, foundationalism's being prone to arbitrariness, and coherentism's being prone to circularity (problems rai ...
* Double-loop learning
The concept of double-loop learning was introduced by Chris Argyris in the 1970s. Double-loop learning entails the modification of goals or decision-making rules in the light of experience. In double-loop learning, individuals or organizations not ...
* Learning cycle
A learning cycle is a concept of how people learn from experience. A learning cycle will have a number of stages or phases, the last of which can be followed by the first.
John Dewey
In 1933 (based on work first published in 1910), John Dewey desc ...
* Lie-to-children
A lie-to-children is a simplified, and often technically incorrect, explanation of technical or complex subjects employed as a teaching method. Educators who employ lies-to-children do not intend to deceive, but instead seek to 'meet the child/pup ...
* Rational reconstruction
Rational reconstruction is a philosophical term with several distinct meanings. It is found in the work of Jürgen Habermas and Imre Lakatos.
Habermas
For Habermas, rational reconstruction is a philosophical and linguistic method that systema ...
* Reason maintenance
{{more footnotes, date=September 2009
Reason maintenanceDoyle, J., 1983. The ins and outs of reason maintenance, in: Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence - Volume 1, IJCAI’83. Morgan Kaufmann Publis ...
* Reflective practice
Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to take a critical stance or attitude towards one's own practice and that of one's peers, engaging in a process of continuous adaptation and learning. According to one definiti ...
* Wide reflective equilibrium
Reflective equilibrium is a state of balance or coherence among a set of beliefs arrived at by a process of deliberative mutual adjustment among general principles and particular judgements. Although he did not use the term, philosopher Nelson ...
* Wittgenstein's ladder
References
{{Reflist
Metaphors referring to ships
Philosophical analogies
Philosophy of science
Willard Van Orman Quine