Tutoriwell
Login Start Now

Philosophy · 11 questions

Ship of Theseus

What makes you the same person after the parts are replaced? A higher percent trusts psychological continuity. The low end trusts the body. The middle thinks identity is not a further fact.

About this test

Plutarch's ship of Theseus is replaced plank by plank. Hobbes asked what happens if the old planks are reassembled into a second ship. Locke tied personal identity to continuity of consciousness. Parfit, in Reasons and Persons, argued that what matters is psychological connectedness and continuity, not a further fact of 'being the same soul,' and that identity can be indeterminate. Bernard Williams pressed the importance of the same human animal. These questions are original applications. The bands are wide in the middle so a 'no deep further fact' view is not forced into a pole.

Question 1 of 11

What this test asks
  1. Every cell in your body is gradually replaced over years. Memory and character never break. Is the later person you?
  2. A procedure destroys your body and builds a replica elsewhere with your memories and character. The replica wakes believing it is you. Do you step into the procedure?
  3. The procedure malfunctions and leaves the original you alive, and also a replica with your mind. Both claim your name.
  4. Your memories and character wake in a new body. The old body is buried. Friends ask who arrived.
  5. The old body wakes with none of your memories and a different character. A copy elsewhere has your mind. Which do you call you?
  6. Dementia has removed most memory and changed character. The body is continuous. Is this still the person in the sense that matters for identity?
  7. A diary, a promise, and a fear about next year still link you to the person who will wake up tomorrow. Is there anything else that makes that person you?
  8. The original planks of Theseus's ship are reassembled across the harbor. The repaired ship is still at the dock, no plank original. Which is the ship?
  9. Someone is responsible for a promise you made ten years ago. The body is yours. You remember nothing of the promise. Are they entitled to hold you to it?
  10. How should a hospital treat a patient who sincerely says the replica procedure will be them?
  11. Which sentence do you trust?