The Ship of Theseus Paradox - Interesting Thought Experiments

The Ship of Theseus - Interesting Thought Experiments

The ship of Theseus is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.
In Greek mythology, Theseus, the legendary founder-king of Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos by killing the minotaur and escaping on a ship bound for Delos. To honor Apollo, the Athenians made an annual pilgrimage to Delos aboard the ship. However, ancient philosophers posed a thought-provoking question: if each individual part of the Ship of Theseus was replaced over several centuries of maintenance, one at a time, would it still be considered the same ship?

Once upon a time there was a ship named Theseus.
obviously, it was made of different materials, like Planks, nails, ropes etc...
after many years, the sailor noticed that the wood the ship is made of started to rot, he decided to replace it one by one, in the first year he replaced half of it, after two years a few more, here and there some nails and ropes, until, over the years, little by little, all the parts of the ship have been replaced.
in the meanwhile, the Port Official decided to put all the parts of the ship in a special warehouse instead of throwing it away, since they weren’t completely worn out.
One day, after a few months, the port faced financial difficulties, therefore the manager decided to use again the materials in that warehouse in order to build a new ship,
since Theseus was one of the best ships in the port, he decides to build the new ship exactly like it, so basically, he recreated the exact same shape like Theseus, from the same original materials it was built from.
so now the port has two ships, that look exactly the same.
And the question that arises now, which one is Theseus ship? the current ship which all its parts were slowly replaced, tell the point that not even a small nail was kept there from the original materials!
OR
the new ship that was recreated in the same shape and from the same exact original materials that the original Theseus ship was built of!?

Let me know what you think and why so in the comments!

this is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original parts replaced remains the same object.
The English philosopher John Locke offered a different version of this experience, and it goes like this: If his favorite socks had a hole in them, and he darned it with fabric, and after a few months they were torn again from a different place, and he darned it again.
He wondered if the socks would remain the same socks when all the original fabric of the orginal sock is replaced by pieces of fabric that designed to close the holes that have been opened in the socks over the years?

The Ship of Theseus - Interesting Thought Experiments

video from canva

[glorioustea]

When it comes to practicality, I would side with the first major change (what made that practical object unique and different) like if the socks had a logo or a unique colour that made it stand out or burgers when you add chicken instead of beef anything that made it stand out as unique but if there wasn't, the second option is if more than half of the material been changed.

[monazrik]

very interesting thought experiment! i think the answer is the one who was built from the original materials! since this is the original ship and the same shape also so it make more since! the current one is all new, so basically it is not theseus right?

[skmmm]

First of all there was no such a ship named Theseus. Theseus was ancient Greek mythology hero. And he sailed ship named Argo.

[meta_inc]

Answer is simple we just replace the old ship without even knowing 🤣🤣 that's it simple