The Ship of Theseus

Hello, everyone! Let's do something a bit different today. Ever heard of the Ship of Theseus? If not, it's quite an interesting thought experiment.

Let's say you are a crew member on the Ship of Theseus. While sailing, some of the boards of the ship start getting weathered, damaged, or need replacing for some other reason. You switch them out with new ones. After years of sailing, none of the original pieces of wood in the ship are left, everything was replaced slowly. The question is: is it still the same ship? Is this still the Ship of Theseus?

Maybe this is easy to answer: there's no real point where you can say the ship became "Not the Ship of Theseus".

Now comes the follow-up: someone kept every single piece of wood that was originally on the ship, weathered, damaged, as they were (which is kind of creepy, if we think about it) and rebuilt a ship exactly like the Ship of Theseus. Is this the true Ship of Theseus? Which Ship has a better claim to the title?

This is interesting because logic would say there is a clear answer, but not quite. The repaired ship has a good claim, as there was no point at which it ceased to be the Ship of Theseus, but it doesn't have the same materials inside it, the same "body". The reconstructed ship has the original materials (somehow in good enough condition to still float), but the materials themselves were not part of the original ship at one point or another. What do you think? Which one should claim the "throne"?

Now, as you may expect from me, this wasn't just a fun little thought exercise. Let's apply it to humans. While we may appear the same over the years, chances are, we are completely different people. I, myself, admit that I'm not the same person I was 6 months ago. Hopefully, I've learned to be a better person, and, hopefully, I was more understanding and kind to others than I was before.

You can never be the same person you were before. The Ship gets damaged, its wounds heal, and they form scars.

I will leave you with a more personal question: if given the opportunity to relive the things that scarred you, would you choose to do so again, knowing the outcome?