The philosophy of Neeltje Jans

The name of Neeltje Jans comes from prehistoric times, born in the hidden Flemish and Dutch past, at the border of the Helle, now called the North Sea. The ‘hell’ (Helle, Houle, Ho¨lle, Holle, Harle) was the place of the dead, in the past, as the sea was the major cause of death. Neeltje Jans was the Gooddess of the sea, like Gai¨a was the mother of the earth. Neeltje Jans brought mythical security, stabilizing the emotion of anxiety in an unstable world without dikes and drainages. Rijkswaterstaat took over her role, producing security in living with water by technological means. Our twentieth century brought a technology that was admirable and powerful, but Neeltje Jans wept, as she had discovered that her intellectual child, called rationality, was blind-born. At first she kept her discovery secret, taking part in an unintended conspiracy of the twentieth century against the logic of feeling, which was called subjective and irrational. But blind rationality, pretending not to know what is quality and value, was going to loose the battle of the mind. In the recent development of the philosophy of technology, water is no longer an enemy, but a field of work for value and quality. This new development of Dutch water technology makes Neeltje Jans smile, her hidden logic has been recognized by the engineer and by a growing public encouragement. Almost half a million people come each year to share the promise of the philosophy of Neeltje Jans, along the line of the unconscious logic of feeling and without knowing consciously why. This paper intends to clear up the poetic mystery and the hidden steering of the logic of feeling behind the new technology of living with water.