Endurantism, Perdurantism, And The Ship Of Theseus
Jireh Batulan Endurantism, Perdurantism, and the Ship of Theseus
ABSTRACT: Endurantism and perdurantism are theories that describe how objects can persist through time. These theories will be used in an effort to solve a puzzle that has been dated all the way back to the first century: the Ship of Theseus. It will be determined that the two theories fail in solving the Ship of Theseus puzzle.
According to Brian Garrett of Australian National University, metaphysics is concerned with the nature and identity of objects.1 In order to increase understanding of the identity of objects, puzzles of constitution and identity are used by philosophers. There is a puzzle common in metaphysics: the Ship of Theseus, which was believed to …show more content…
The first scenario depicts a ship being dismantled and then rebuilt. The second scenario portrays the ship being completely remodeled. The third scenario is a mixture of the previous ones that have the ship being completely remodeled, but the removed planks are used to construct another ship. In order to solve this puzzle, one must be able to identify which ship is the Ship of Theseus. Philosophical theories can be used to solve philosophical puzzles such as this one and there are two theories that exist that help one understand how objects persist through time: endurantism and perdurantism. According to endurantism, ordinary objects are wholly present at each moment of time at which they exist3. In perdurantism, objects are four dimensional entities that consist of temporal and spatial parts and these objects persist by having different temporal parts at different times4. Once one has knowledge of endurantism and perdurantism, the theories can be used to solve puzzles such as the Ship of Theseus. However, in this paper, it will be shown that the puzzle of the Ship of Theseus cannot be solved using endurantism and perdurantism. This is because attempts made by endurantists and perdurantists result in unintuitive consequences. This will be done first by explaining …show more content…
In the Ship of Theseus, there are three different scenarios. In the first scenario, the Ship of Theseus is dismantled and then rebuilt with each plank being returned to its original location— we’ll call this ship Y1. In the second scenario, the ship is completely remodeled with an entirely new set of planks— we’ll call this ship X1. In the third scenario, two ships are involved. The ship from the second scenario (now called ship X) is present, but an entirely different ship that is being constructed out of the planks that had been removed (called ship Y) is also present. In order to solve this puzzle, the Ship of Theseus must be identified. However, flaws in endurantism are shown by how the endurantist must deny that Y1 is equal to Y. This is done in order to respect the necessity of identity and non-identity which states that if x = y, then necessarily x = y8. However, what this entails is that one could claim that if the removed planks had not been replaced in the third scenario, then ship Y would not have existed and instead ship Y1 would have existed. This means that the existence of ship Y or Y1 entirely depends on whether or not the removed planks were replaced. Brian Garrett refers to this consequence as “strange” because “we don’t think that the existence of a particular ship (or of anything else
ABSTRACT: Endurantism and perdurantism are theories that describe how objects can persist through time. These theories will be used in an effort to solve a puzzle that has been dated all the way back to the first century: the Ship of Theseus. It will be determined that the two theories fail in solving the Ship of Theseus puzzle.
According to Brian Garrett of Australian National University, metaphysics is concerned with the nature and identity of objects.1 In order to increase understanding of the identity of objects, puzzles of constitution and identity are used by philosophers. There is a puzzle common in metaphysics: the Ship of Theseus, which was believed to …show more content…
The first scenario depicts a ship being dismantled and then rebuilt. The second scenario portrays the ship being completely remodeled. The third scenario is a mixture of the previous ones that have the ship being completely remodeled, but the removed planks are used to construct another ship. In order to solve this puzzle, one must be able to identify which ship is the Ship of Theseus. Philosophical theories can be used to solve philosophical puzzles such as this one and there are two theories that exist that help one understand how objects persist through time: endurantism and perdurantism. According to endurantism, ordinary objects are wholly present at each moment of time at which they exist3. In perdurantism, objects are four dimensional entities that consist of temporal and spatial parts and these objects persist by having different temporal parts at different times4. Once one has knowledge of endurantism and perdurantism, the theories can be used to solve puzzles such as the Ship of Theseus. However, in this paper, it will be shown that the puzzle of the Ship of Theseus cannot be solved using endurantism and perdurantism. This is because attempts made by endurantists and perdurantists result in unintuitive consequences. This will be done first by explaining …show more content…
In the Ship of Theseus, there are three different scenarios. In the first scenario, the Ship of Theseus is dismantled and then rebuilt with each plank being returned to its original location— we’ll call this ship Y1. In the second scenario, the ship is completely remodeled with an entirely new set of planks— we’ll call this ship X1. In the third scenario, two ships are involved. The ship from the second scenario (now called ship X) is present, but an entirely different ship that is being constructed out of the planks that had been removed (called ship Y) is also present. In order to solve this puzzle, the Ship of Theseus must be identified. However, flaws in endurantism are shown by how the endurantist must deny that Y1 is equal to Y. This is done in order to respect the necessity of identity and non-identity which states that if x = y, then necessarily x = y8. However, what this entails is that one could claim that if the removed planks had not been replaced in the third scenario, then ship Y would not have existed and instead ship Y1 would have existed. This means that the existence of ship Y or Y1 entirely depends on whether or not the removed planks were replaced. Brian Garrett refers to this consequence as “strange” because “we don’t think that the existence of a particular ship (or of anything else