If I replace the part of the ship with an identical one nothing about the function of the ship changes.
But words and sentences carry information and any change to it alters that information, even if it’s still about the same subject. The newer sentences may also be written by different people then the original sentences
2 texts from different authors covering the same real life event are considered different. Even if they are sold by the same store and got their titles mixed up.
On the other side you could define a Wikipedia article with its transformative nature over time as one of its main properties, in which case this is just a later stage of that same wiki article. Which does feel accurate.
So its not the same text but it is the same wiki article.
The ship is still the ship identified by the same name and repairs are normal part of ship maintenance. But we don’t usually specify this transformative nature when we define a ship or anything else.
Same when a child grows up. Is it the same person? Any sane person would say yes. Anybody who just enjoys debating pointless things would open a Pandora’s box.
I mean that’s what the Socratic method is getting at - things that are “sane” “true” “known” “proven” in actuality are none of those things. It asks you to define where you draw the line.
Is it pointless to consider and debate the characteristics of “what makes a person to be the same person”? You seem to say, as long as it’s the current lump of biomass has been formed by a past lump of biomass, it’s the same person. Assume I cloned a person, is that the same person? Does a person become a different person when they replace a lot of organs? Or is it only the brain that is important?
Also: don’t diminish people having fun over theoretical debates by calling them insane. Let people have fun.
Cloning is a special case because answering the question is actually necessary for practical purposes in the real world. Debating whether a child who grew up is a different person because all the cells in the body were replaced, or whether your contract on a dock is voided because you replaced all the boards on a ship one after the other, doesn’t really have any effect on practical life.
I’m not saying anybody having fun theorizing these things is insane, because I agree it can be fun - I’m saying anybody doing it “seriously” would be, in my eyes.
I mean it could have impact on the real world, the same as seriously discussing “can we still do algebra with the imaginary result of taking the root of -1”. Apparently that was purely theoretical nonsense until we noticed that that allows us to do some very cool stuff in the real world.
I’m not saying all hypotheticals are useless. This one of whether a ship is still the same in particular is, though (other than for fun). Imaginary numbers were discovered as a tool while solving mathematical problems, so I would not say they are the same.
If i deconstruct 60% of a ship. Leave the 40% idle while i use the 60% to elsewhere construct a full ship and then proceed to rebuild the 40% in an identical full ship.
I was just thinking that a reasonable person wouldn’t consider it the same article anymore. Subject is the same but the article has been completely changed
“Debate solved”
Pandoras box opened they must mean.
If I replace the part of the ship with an identical one nothing about the function of the ship changes.
But words and sentences carry information and any change to it alters that information, even if it’s still about the same subject. The newer sentences may also be written by different people then the original sentences
2 texts from different authors covering the same real life event are considered different. Even if they are sold by the same store and got their titles mixed up.
On the other side you could define a Wikipedia article with its transformative nature over time as one of its main properties, in which case this is just a later stage of that same wiki article. Which does feel accurate.
So its not the same text but it is the same wiki article.
The ship is still the ship identified by the same name and repairs are normal part of ship maintenance. But we don’t usually specify this transformative nature when we define a ship or anything else.
So is it solved?
Yes.
Same when a child grows up. Is it the same person? Any sane person would say yes. Anybody who just enjoys debating pointless things would open a Pandora’s box.
I mean that’s what the Socratic method is getting at - things that are “sane” “true” “known” “proven” in actuality are none of those things. It asks you to define where you draw the line.
Is it pointless to consider and debate the characteristics of “what makes a person to be the same person”? You seem to say, as long as it’s the current lump of biomass has been formed by a past lump of biomass, it’s the same person. Assume I cloned a person, is that the same person? Does a person become a different person when they replace a lot of organs? Or is it only the brain that is important?
Also: don’t diminish people having fun over theoretical debates by calling them insane. Let people have fun.
Cloning is a special case because answering the question is actually necessary for practical purposes in the real world. Debating whether a child who grew up is a different person because all the cells in the body were replaced, or whether your contract on a dock is voided because you replaced all the boards on a ship one after the other, doesn’t really have any effect on practical life.
I’m not saying anybody having fun theorizing these things is insane, because I agree it can be fun - I’m saying anybody doing it “seriously” would be, in my eyes.
I mean it could have impact on the real world, the same as seriously discussing “can we still do algebra with the imaginary result of taking the root of -1”. Apparently that was purely theoretical nonsense until we noticed that that allows us to do some very cool stuff in the real world.
I’m not saying all hypotheticals are useless. This one of whether a ship is still the same in particular is, though (other than for fun). Imaginary numbers were discovered as a tool while solving mathematical problems, so I would not say they are the same.
If i deconstruct 60% of a ship. Leave the 40% idle while i use the 60% to elsewhere construct a full ship and then proceed to rebuild the 40% in an identical full ship.
Which ship should get the original name?
Whichever you want?
I was just thinking that a reasonable person wouldn’t consider it the same article anymore. Subject is the same but the article has been completely changed
Thesus just needed version tracking
“It’s not the same article because you’re looking at version 2024-03-22-11-54-12-023a and I’m looking at version 2025-08-02-08-15-59-01b”
deleted by creator