Łódź Neuratha w nauce, teorii moralnej i prawoznawstwie

In this paper I analyze the meaning of the metaphor of so-called Neurath’s boat. It presents the nondogmatic picture of human knowledge, closely related to the version of epistemological holism manifested in writings of such philosophers as J.S. Mill, P. Duhem, Ch. Wright, C.S. Peirce, W. James, J. Dewey, W.V. Quine, N. Goodman, J. Rawls or M. White. Nowadays the anti-foundationalist and anti- Cartesian understanding of the metaphor is widely shared, although its application is still often abusing Neurath’s original intentions. After considering two particular applications of the metaphor – scientific (Quine) and moral-political (Rawls, White) – I briefly consider possible applications in the field of general jurisprudence.