The rabbit–duck illusion is an ambiguous image in which a

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

or a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

can be seen. The earliest known version is an unattributed drawing from the 23 October 1892 issue of ', a German humour magazine. It was captioned, in older German spelling, "" ("Which animals are most like each other?"), with "" ("Rabbit and Duck") written underneath. After being used by psychologist

Joseph Jastrow Joseph Jastrow (January 30, 1863 – January 8, 1944) was a Polish-born American psychologist renowned for his contributions to experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illu ...

, the image was made famous by

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

, who included it in his ''

Philosophical Investigations ''Philosophical Investigations'' () is a work by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, published posthumously in 1953. ''Philosophical Investigations'' is divided into two parts, consisting of what Wittgenstein calls, in the preface, ''Bemer ...

'' as a means of describing two different ways of seeing: "seeing that" versus "seeing as".

Correlations

Whether one sees a rabbit or a duck, and how often, may correlate with sociological, biological, and psychological factors. For example, Swiss, both young and old, tend to see a bunny during Easter and a bird/duck in October. It may also indicate creativity. A standard test of creativity is to list as many novel uses as one can for an everyday object (e.g., a paper clip) in a limited time. Wiseman et al. found that participants who easily could see the image as either a rabbit or duck came up with an average of about 5 novel uses for their everyday item, while those who could not flip between rabbit and duck at all came up with fewer than 2 novel uses.

Philosophical implications

Several scholars suggested that the illusion resonates philosophically and politically. Wittgenstein, as Shirley Le Penne commented, employed the rabbit–duck illusion to distinguish perception from interpretation. If you see only a duck, you would say "this ''is'' a duck", but once you become aware of the duality you would say "''now'' I see it ''as'' a rabbit". You may also say "it's a rabbit–duck", which, for Wittgenstein, is a perceptual report.

Thomas Kuhn Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American History and philosophy of science, historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and ...

used the rabbit–duck illusion as a metaphor for revolutionary change in science, illustrating the way in which a paradigm shift could cause one to see the same information in an entirely different way. Uriel Abulof said that the illusion crystallizes the interplay between freedom (choice) and facticity (forced reality). If you see just a duck, you may need to actively choose to work on seeing the rabbit too, and once you do, to then choose which you see at any given point. While submitting that "once you see the duck you cannot unsee it", Abulof said that "trying to unsee what we already did might be less about choosing one perspective over another but about negating one, so that we don't have to choose."

References

External links

The illusion in ' at the University Library Heidelberg
*
Rabbitduck
', a sculpture by Paul St George {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbit-duck illusion Optical illusions 1892 in art Rabbits and hares in art Ducks in art