Neurath's boat: Difference between revisions

The boat was replaced by a [[raft]] in discussions by some philosophers, such as [[Paul Lorenzen]] in 1968,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lorenzen |first=Paul |authorlink=Paul Lorenzen |date=1987 |chapter=Methodical Thinking |origyear=Chapter first published in German in 1968 |title=Constructive Philosophy |location=Amherst, MA |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |pages=3–29 |isbn=0870235648 |oclc=14376554 |ref=harv |quote=If we envision natural language as a ship at sea, then our situation can be described as follows: If we are unable to make landfall, then our ship must have been constructed on the high seas—not by us but by our ancestors. Our ancestors must have been able to swim and have somehow carpentered together a raft out of, say, driftwood. They then continually improved on this raft until today the raft has become a comfortable ship. So comfortable that we no longer have the courage to jump into the water and once more start from scratch. To solve the problem of the method for thought, we must put ourselves in such a shipless condition, that is, bereft of language, and then attempt to retrace the activities whereby we could, while swimming free in the middle of the sea of life, build for ourselves a raft or even a ship.}}</ref> [[Susan Haack]] in 1974,<ref>{{cite book |last=Haack |first=Susan |authorlink=Susan Haack |date=1974 |title=Deviant Logic: Some Philosophical Issues |location=London; New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=37 |isbn=052120500X |oclc=1200917 |ref=harv |quote=Certainly some logic is taken for granted in the presentation of the pragmatist picture. But to suppose that this shows that picture to be incoherent is to forget, what is crucial, that we are, to use Neurath's figure, ''rebuilding our raft while afloat on it''.}}</ref> and [[Ernest Sosa]] in 1980.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sosa |first=Ernest |authorlink=Ernest Sosa |date=1991 |origyear=Chapter first published in 1980 |chapter=The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence Versus Foundations in the Theory of Knowledge |title=Knowledge in Perspective: Selected Essays in Epistemology |location=Cambridge, UK; New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=165–191 |isbn=0521356288 |oclc=22206442 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511625299.011 |ref=harv |quote=The coherentists reject the metaphor of the pyramid in favor of one that they owe to the positivist Neurath, according to whom our body of knowledge is a raft that floats free of any anchor or tie. Repairs must be made afloat, and though no part is untouchable, we must stand on some in order to replace or repair others. Not every part can go at once.}}</ref>

 

 

==Neurathian bootstrap==