Ship of Theseus
There is an ancient philosophical dilemma that remains unsolved today, known as the Ship of Theseus dilemma.
Briefly: Theseus was a Greek king who took his ship and went to fight his enemies and defeated them. When he returned, people celebrated him and decided to immortalize his legendary ship.
Over time, the ship's planks were eroding, so people replaced the damaged planks with new ones every year. And so, year after year, until finally there was no original wood left in the ship. Here the dilemma appears:
?Is the ship still the same ship with which Theseus won
?Does it still retain its original legend?If yes, how can this be done when the original wood is no longer there
?If no, at what point did the ship lose its identity? Was that after the first panel was changed? Or the second? Or a thousand? Or the last
From here, we encounter a question: Do things have an essence that we can recognize even if they change from the outside? Or is there no such thing as essence, and that things are merely the sum of their elements and external properties?
This dilemma has been linked to the question of human identity. Not only the biological changes that happen to us over time, from cell death and renewal, etc., but at the level of the self and personality.
?This begs the question: Who are we, really? Which version of us is the real us
As a simple example, you can think of a football team that you like. Imagine if every day a player from the team was sold and replaced by a new player. And so on until you find yourself watching a match and see a completely new team whose players you don't know the names of. Will you still feel that it is the same team that you were attached to and its players and tell the team who attended, or will you feel something strange?
A homeland or city that you love and is connected to every place and street in it. Over time, her landmarks are removed, the trees she loves are cut down, the sea is surrounded by bars, and the places she is connected to are turned to concrete. Will you feel the same sense of connection and belonging?
In general, many theories have tried to answer the ship's dilemma, and I am not interested in presenting them here as much as I am interested in asking questions and thinking about them.
We assume that at some point in your life you were able to create an identity with which you present yourself to people. You have determined your faith, principles, character, likes and dislikes. Let's say a person named A was with you all that time. And with the passage of time, all of that changed. Your principles, if they were on the right, became on the left, what you believed in became mocked, your character changed, and the things you love and hate changed completely. And let's assume that during all this you were far from the person
A, and I met another person named B. The question here is: Who knows the real you the most? One of them? both of them? Or no one? Or the person who will bear witness to your final copy at the end of the journey?
?If after this change you meet your old friend A, how will you feel and how will you deal with each other
We return to the ship, where, instead of solving it, a philosopher decides to add another question to the dilemma. “Imagine someone collected all the original decayed wood and made a new ship with it,” he said. Can we then say that it is the ship of Theseus? Or is the ship we restored his ship?
This can be approximated by analogy to a football team. Imagine that the players who were sold all went to a new team. The new team plays against your original team, whose players' names you do not now know. But he plays against a team that includes players with whom he associates, with memories of their championships and the T-shirts bearing their names. To whom will your loyalty and encouragement be in this case?
When we say: “I know so-and-so,” or “So-and-so knows me,” what do we mean by that?
Can one person truly know another person completely?
Do things have an original essence of their own no matter what, or are things merely a reflection of the perceptions of those observing them?
Are we a series of necessarily unrelated copies, or is there something in us that, if we see it and find it, we can recognize people (or at least those we love) and feel familiar with them, no matter how life changes us on the outside?
The Ship of Theseus Dilemma is considered one of the most interesting philosophical dilemmas because it addresses fundamental questions about identity and change. This dilemma raises profound questions about what makes something what it is, and how it can change gradually without losing its essential identity. The dilemma opens the door to discussions about personal identity and how it changes over time. Who are we really? Are we just a collection of memories and experiences, or is there a constant essence within us?
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