Ship of Theseus
$13.50
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Ship of Theseus
$13.50
This nail polish has a soft minty green base with a shifting aurora holo shimmer that changes from teal, to blue, to gold, and an added holo shimmer.
The Ship of Theseus is a famous thought experiment about identity.
Imagine a ship belonging to the legendary Greek hero Theseus. Over time, its wooden planks begin to rot, so they are replaced one by one. Eventually, every single original plank has been replaced. The question that is then raised is, is it still the same ship after every plank has been changed out?
Most people will generally say yes, it is.
But now, suppose that someone collected all of the original parts of the ship that had been replaced over time, and constructed another ship of all of those original parts. Now we have two ships - are they both the Ship of Theseus? Is only one of them the ship? And if so, which one?
There aren't really any right or wrong answers to these questions. The experiment serves to help us examine how we think about what makes something itself.
My deepest condolences if you just wanted to buy some nail polish and now your head hurts.
Ship of Theseus is part of the Philosophy 101 collection