Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Ship of Theseus

(The blog has been long neglected and truth be told, learning itself has been long neglected. So making a faux-resolution that I will be more frequent in postings from now on. Posts might be most cheesy at times but hopefully, there will be posts. 

Starting with a post about my thoughts on the famous Ship Of Theseus paradox. I was supposed to write it as a part of a contest and am reproducing it here.) 



In my opinion, whether it remains the same ship or not is loosely a matter of definition. How do you define dichotomy? Indeed, how do you even begin to recognize it? Isn’t even establishing its existence somewhat akin to dividing the world into strict black and white areas and thus leaving no room for shades of grey? And then if it’s true, shouldn’t all branches of philosophy reach closure; all such questions be put to rest?



But even that definition to my mind is a simple matter of convenience. So while I think that it still remains the same ship, it is so not because of strong conviction but merely because considering so is convenient to me. One might disagree and claim that his conviction in the opposite idea is stronger than mine and I might be tempted to debate. But isn’t debating it again a matter of seeking dichotomy? And being a non-confrontational person in general, it is convenient for me to avoid it. Thus it remains the same ship. It might be proclaimed as ignorance or general vacuity itself but who is to say that the other idea if proved correct won’t be extrapolated? Again one might say that the scope of the question is rather narrow. It is only about the ship. But if it is only about the ship, then does it really matter?