Neurathian bootstrap

Neurath's boat is a simile used in anti-foundational accounts of knowledge, especially in the philosophy of science. It was first formulated by Otto Neurath. It is based in part on the Ship of Theseus which, however, is standardly used to illustrate other philosophical questions, to do with problems of identity. It was popularised by Willard Van Orman Quine in Word and Object (1960).

Different versions
Neurath used the simile in several occasions, the first being in Neurath's text "Problems in War Economics". In "Anti-Spengler" Neurath wrote:

Keith Stanovich, in his book The Robot's Rebellion, refers to it as a Neurathian bootstrap and uses it as an analogy to the recursive 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, one might proceed to examine and revise their beliefs so as to become more rational.

See also 
 Axiom
 Double-loop learning
 Lie-to-children
 Lifelong learning
 Marketplace of ideas
 Scientific method

References

Category:Metaphors
Category:Philosophical concepts
Category:Philosophy of science
Category:Willard Van Orman Quine