Ship of Theseus
Thought experiment about identity over time
Ship of Theseus
The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and common thought experiment questioning whether an object (in the most common stating of the paradox, a ship) remains the same when all of its original components are gradually replaced over time, with no single part being designated as essential to its original identity. Greek biographer Plutarch described the paradox in his Life of Theseus, recounting how the Athenians preserved the ship on which the mythical king Theseus had sailed after slaying the Minotaur and rescuing the children of Athens from King Minos. They maintained the ship by removing and replacing rotted timbers, raising philosophical debates on whether or not it remained the same ship. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, in De Corpore (1655), further questioned how to consider a second ship that had been built entirely from pieces removed from the original. In contemporary philosophy, the thought experiment has applications to the philosophical study of...
Read on Wikipedia · Image Ship outline by Yosemite, edited and coloured by Belbury, CC BY 4.0
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