【哲学】Ship of Theseus / Naked City Which Is Joseph Creeley?

忒修斯之船（英语：ship of Theseus），亦稱忒修斯悖論，是一種同一性的悖論。1世纪时的希腊作家普魯塔克提出了这个问题：如果忒修斯的船上的木头被逐渐替换，直到所有的木头都不是原来的木头，那这艘船还是原来的那艘船吗？这类问题现在被称作“忒修斯之船”。有些哲学家认为是同一物体，有些哲学家认为不是。在普魯塔克之前，赫拉克利特、苏格拉底、柏拉图都曾经讨论过相似的问题。近代霍布斯和洛克也讨论过该问题。这个问题有许多变种，如“祖父的斧頭”。
--- wiki

---

yandoo.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/theseuss-paradox/

Theseus’s paradox


Theseus is remembered in Greek mythology as the slayer of the Minotaur. For years, the Athenians had been sending sacrifices to be given to the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull beast who inhabited the labyrinth of Knossos. One year, Theseus braved the labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur. The ship in which he returned was long preserved. As parts of the ship needed repair, it was rebuilt plank by plank.



The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus’s paradox, is a paradox that raises a question of identity – whether an object which has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch in Life of Theseus from the late 1st century. Plutarch asked whether a ship which was restored by replacing all and every of its wooden parts, remained the same ship.



The paradox had been discussed by more ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus, Socrates, and Plato prior to Plutarch’s writings; and more recently by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. There are several variants, notably “my grandfather’s axe”, and in the UK “Trigger’s Broom”. This thought experiment is “a model for the philosophers”; some say, “it remained the same,” some saying, “it did not remain the same”.[1]



George Washington’s axe (sometimes “my grandfather’s axe”) is the subject of an apocryphal story of unknown origin in which the famous artifact is “still George Washington’s axe” despite having had both its head and handle replaced.



“…as in the case of the owner of George Washington’s axe which has three times had its handle replaced and twice had its head replaced!” [2]