Part of a family
The story of Theseus’s ship was first set down two thousand years ago by the Greek historian Plutarch, and is a thought experiment drawing on western philosophy’s earliest concerns. Plutarch invites his reader to imagine that a ship once sailed by the hero Theseus is now being preserved for posterity. Over time, different parts of the ship decay and are replaced – until, eventually, nothing of the original remains. Does the ship of Theseus still exist?
Most people don’t find this too difficult a question, intuitively speaking. The new version of the ship may not be the same as the original, in terms
