Questions tagged [ship-of-theseus]

The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment. If an individual plank is removed and replaced from a ship until the ship has none of the original planks is it the same ship? If the planks removed from the first ship are used to make a new ship is the new ship now the same as the old? The paradox has been discussed throughout history by various philosophers.

The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment. If an individual plank is removed and replaced from a ship until the ship has none of the original planks is it the same ship? If the planks removed from the first ship are used to make a new ship is the new ship now the same as the old? The paradox has been discussed throughout history by various philosophers.

7 questions
5
votes
5 answers

What are the philosophical solutions to "ship of Theseus" problem of identity?

Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment in which every piece of a ship kept in a harbor is replaced one at a time. The questions are: would the end result be the same ship or a new ship? If it is not the same ship; at what point did it stop being…
5
votes
3 answers

The "Brain" of Theseus?

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Ship of Theseus paradox, basically "If you replace parts of a ship over time until none of the original ship is left, is the end product still the same ship?" I just read pop philosophy books, so spare me if…
user41247
3
votes
1 answer

Historiography of the Ship of Theseus

Does anybody know of a historiography or review of the discussion of the idea of the Ship of Theseus and things related thereto (I suppose this might also include Alan Gibbard's discussion of the Lumpl-Goliath problem). Failing an actual…
2
votes
3 answers

Theseus' Ship: The concept of an object vs an actual object

First, I am not a philosopher, just a curious person (perhaps one could say that is a philosopher :)) If you take Theseus' ship and use all of the wood to build a house. Let's call it, Theseus' House. Is the house still Theseus' ship, or is it…
A.G.
  • 121
  • 1
2
votes
2 answers

Can the "Ship of Theseus" apply to thoughts?

If we go by the ideas of philosophers (such as Hume) which take a person to be a collection of perceptions can we reduce and clone the mind of a person thus recreating the ship of theseus? UPDATE: As the example I've given below, there are 3 rats…
NationWidePants
  • 886
  • 8
  • 31
1
vote
2 answers

Kant and the Ship of Theseus

Does Kant's philosophy of perception and intuition imply that the unity of perceived individuals is an intuition? If so, this seems to resolve the various paradoxes of physical individuals such as the problem of change over time and the ship of…
0
votes
2 answers

Rewriting Theseus ship problem

Let's consider a band (just called Theseus band, for convenience) consist of 3 members, Alex, Brad, and Charles. After the first year, Charles left, and Gary joined the band. After the second year, Brad left, and Harry joined the band. After the…
Tensor
  • 1