Any discussion about intelligence, mind and thoughts inevitably lands in the realm of Philosophy, an area I had considered to be rather unfathomable. However, recent reading has shown it to be full of interesting concepts; one of them is Ship of Theseus.
Consider this: A ship is anchored in a port for many years, being preserved as a war memorial. Over a period of time, its wooden planks are rotten by seawater and weather, so they are replaced one by one.
Eventually, all the structure of the ship is made of new planks.
Question is: Is it still the same ship? If the answer is "No", the next question is: At what point did the ship transform from old to new?
This riddle, originally posed thousands of years ago by Greek philosopher Plutarch, still presents itself to us in many forms. A knife, whose blade and handle has been replaced over a period, is still the same knife? Cells in the human body are continuously replaced by new ones, so after a few years, all the cells in our body are 'new', and yet, we continue to be same person
Consider this: A ship is anchored in a port for many years, being preserved as a war memorial. Over a period of time, its wooden planks are rotten by seawater and weather, so they are replaced one by one.
Eventually, all the structure of the ship is made of new planks.
Question is: Is it still the same ship? If the answer is "No", the next question is: At what point did the ship transform from old to new?
This riddle, originally posed thousands of years ago by Greek philosopher Plutarch, still presents itself to us in many forms. A knife, whose blade and handle has been replaced over a period, is still the same knife? Cells in the human body are continuously replaced by new ones, so after a few years, all the cells in our body are 'new', and yet, we continue to be same person
No comments:
Post a Comment