The Ship of Theseus is a paradox of identity and persistence: if a ship has every one of its original planks replaced over time through repair, is the resulting vessel still the same ship? Recorded in Plutarch's Life of Theseus, where the Athenians preserved the ship by continually replacing decayed timber, the puzzle bears on the modern philosophical problems of personal identity and the relationship between material composition and identity over time. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Disputed
Origin Year75 CE marks Plutarch's Life of Theseus, the earliest surviving text to record the puzzle; the underlying question of identity through change is older than Plutarch's own account of it, and no earlier attested source names it explicitly. FAQs
If every plank of the Ship of Theseus is replaced, is it still the same ship?
A paradox of identity: if every original plank of a ship is replaced over time through repair, philosophers dispute whether the resulting vessel is still the same ship.
The Ship of Theseus is a paradox of identity and persistence: if a ship has every one of its original planks replaced over time through repair, is the resulting vessel still the same ship? It is recorded in Plutarch's Life of Theseus, where the Athenians preserved the ship by continually replacing decayed timber. The puzzle bears on the modern philosophical problems of personal identity and the relationship between material composition and identity over time.
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Source Ship of Theseus (Wikipedia)
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Source Ship of Theseus (Wikipedia)
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Source Ship of Theseus (Wikipedia)
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1. Ship of Theseus (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIntroduction
If no pieces of the original remained in the current ship, was it still the Ship of Theseus?
Influenced By: Thomas Hobbes, Hobbes's extension section
The 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes extended the thought experiment by supposing that a ship custodian gathered up all of the decayed parts as they were discarded and used them to build a second ship, then asked which of the two-the custodian's or the Athenians'-was the 'original' ship.
Associated With: Thomas Hobbes, Lead
Seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes further questioned how to consider a second ship that had been built entirely from pieces removed from the original.
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