The Ship of Theseus

Hi All,
In the final chapter of the book “Blackout”, one of the characters is listening to a philosophy show on the radio :radio:, on this they talk about the parable of the ship of Theseus. In greek mythology Theseus defeated the minotaur, he sailed back to Athens, the people were so overjoyed by his triumph, they decided to honour him by preserving his ship in the harbour, but over time the ship started to deteriorate, so they replaced damaged parts, after a thousand years of repair, all parts of the original ship had been replaced, the question is, after a thousand years, is the ship of Theseus sitting in the harbour still the ship of Theseus?
If no, then when did it stop being the ship of Theseus? When the first plank is replaced? The 2nd? The last?
If yes, then can someone just build a ship using the old planks & just call it the ship of Theseus?
I love philosophical questions like this, it’s basically asking how much a person can change & still be considered the same person. :thinking: The more I think about it, everyone goes through events in our lives that change us as a person, the person we were at the age of 5, is not the same person we were at 15, 20, 30, & so on, because as things happen, we’re changing all the time. An interesting point I’ve realised in this, is that the plans we make for our future selves, our future self is a stranger to us, with different ambitions, tastes & priorities, so why do we make plans for a stranger we don’t even know?

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Mmmm…interesting

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Because it’s the only choice we have.