Theseus's paradox deals with Theseus's ship. According to the story, the athenians preserved Theseus's ship after he came back from Crete. After some time, the wood planks from the ship decay, and so they replace them with new wooden planks. The old planks, however, were stored and used to make a new ship; there where now two ships. But which ship is the original ship of Theseus? It very well be that the second ship, made of the old wooden planks, is the original ship of Theseus. The problem comes when we try to determine at what point the old ship becomes the original ship, and when the new ship stopped being the original one.
One could say that maybe that in any certain part of the process, the ship with the most amount of original wood planks is the original ship, but this assumption may very well be just because we assign the same value to each plank, but would it work with the human body? What composes you? The value of each individual parts are not equal, we know this much, but we can't really determine the exact value; for example, if the whole body was separate from the brain, what would be most you? Well, the body has more parts, but the brain feels more like... you. Maybe the brain is what is most of you. But what composes the brain? Well, the brain stores memories. It behaves accordingly to your biology. And somehow, experiences and biology combine to create personality. This personality is ever changing and evolving, and so are you. Perhaps self is an illusion.
Think about it! everything that is you is made of other smaller, independent parts. There is no definite you. Our bodies are not completely stable, we are constantly loosing and adding mass to our body. At some point in your life, much like the ship of Theseus, all of the cells in your body will be replaced. Does this mean that the old you has ceased to exist? If you could rearrange all of those molecules, in the exact same configuration as they where, would two of you exist? Would they be different people?
Thoughts?
PLVS VLTRA,
Atlas.
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