Ideas from 'Protocol Sentences' by Otto Neurath [1932], by Theme Structure
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13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 4. Foundationalism / f. Foundationalism critique
10486
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If we are rebuilding our ship at sea, we should jettison some cargo
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Full Idea:
If we are sailors rebuilding our ship plank by plank on the open sea, then I know of some cargo we might want to jettison.
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From:
comment on Otto Neurath (Protocol Sentences [1932]) by George Boolos - Must We Believe in Set Theory? p.128
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A reaction:
This may just be an assertion of Ockham's Razor, but the interest is that the Neurath image demands internal standards of economy etc, whereas reality itself seems to be a right mess.
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8485
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We must always rebuild our ship on the open sea; we can't reconstruct it properly in dry-dock
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Full Idea:
We are like sailors who must rebuild their ship out on the open sea, never able to dismantle it in a dry-dock and reconstruct it there out of the best materials.
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From:
Otto Neurath (Protocol Sentences [1932]), quoted by Alex Orenstein - W.V. Quine Ch.8
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A reaction:
This is the classic statement of the anti-foundationalist picture of knowledge. It is often quoted by Quine. A tricky issue. I have a lot of sympathy with Bonjour's rationalist foundationalism.
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