Thought

Experiments
The Ship of Theseus
The Ship of Theseus, take 1
The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty
oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of
Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they
decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch
that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers,
for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the
ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the
same.
[Plutarch. “Theseus.” Internet Classics Archive, n.d. http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/theseus.html.]
So...
Is the ship as we see it now the same ship that belonged to Theseus, or is it another?

If it’s the same ship, what makes it the same?

It can’t be the material parts, for they have all changed… Is it the “essence”?

❖ If so, would the ship be the same, even if it was never repaired, and all the pieces
rotted away entirely, but its “essence” somehow remained unchanged?
❖ Then would it also be the same ship, if only the essence had been conceived, and
the actual ship had never been built?
❖ And how would we recognize this invisible ship?
❖ What if the essence stayed the same, but the ship was composed of different
materials? Which ones?
Or...
If it’s another, when did it change---

❖ After the first alteration or repair?

❖ After the last?
❖ Or somewhere along the way?

(And, if it’s the third option, where do we draw the line, and why?)
The Ship of Theseus, take 2
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes preoccupied himself with
this problem and expanded the paradox even further in his work De
Corpore.

What if, he said, the carpenters that repaired the boat kept all the
original parts? And what if, someone, sometime later, decided to
reassemble the original ship?
[From De Corpore (1655) part 2, chapter 11]
So...
Now we seem to have not one, but two ships, each of which has a
claim to being the “original.” We have one ship that preserves the
essence of Theseus’ ship, but not its material--- and one that
preserves its material, but not its essence.
Question: they can’t both be original, can they?
If there can be more than one “original”, how many “originals” can
there be?
(Consider a piece of recorded music, for example…)
Another approach
Depending on which ship one judges to be the same as Theseus’ original
ship, a different principle seems to be at work.

(a) The Gradual Replacement Principle : If object X is composed of many

parts, and a single part of that object is replaced, producing object Y,

then objects X and Y are the same object.

(b) The Same Parts Principle : If object X and object Y share all and only the

same exact parts, arranged in exactly the same way, then objects X

and Y are the same object.

But...
What about this principle?

(c) The Principle of Transitivity (of Identity) : If “A = B” and “B = C” are

true, then “A = C” is also true.

(An analogous example: if 4 quarters equal 1 dollar, and 1 dollar equals

10 dimes, then 4 quarters equal 10 dimes.)

But if Principle (c) is true, then either Principle (a) or Principle (b) must
be false (...or perhaps they’re both false!)
Why?
To illustrate this in the Ship of Theseus case, let us call Theseus’ original ship “A”.
Next, call the ship with all new parts “B”.
Finally, call the ship re-constructed out of all the old parts “C”.
Now, by the Gradual Replacement Principle, “A = B” is true.
But, by the Same Parts Principle, “A = C” is true.
But, then, by the Principle of Transitivity (of identity), “B = C” must be true.
This means that the ship with all new parts and the ship re-constructed from all of
the old parts must be numerically ONE AND THE SAME SHIP.
But, that is absurd— they are clearly two distinct ships!
Why should we care?
Well, for one thing, it raises important existential questions about
personal identity, along with the “metaphysical” questions we have
been considering--- questions like
❖ What makes me “me”?
❖ What changes may I undergo and still remain “me,” without
ceasing to be “me?”
❖ Is the “me” that has experiences in my childhood the “me” that I
grow up to be as an adult?
❖ What if there’s nothing about “me” ever stays the same? Does that
mean there is no “me” to begin with…?