Philosophyspeaking topic
The ship of Theseus: if every part of the ship is replaced over time, is it still the same ship? Our cells are replaced too, so what keeps us the same person?
— Plutarch, ship of Theseus
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The trolley problem: a runaway trolley is about to hit five people; pull the lever and it switches tracks, killing one person instead. Is deliberately killing one person morally different from letting five people die?
- Molyneux's problem: a person born blind learns to tell a sphere from a cube by touch alone. If they suddenly gained sight, could they tell which is which just by looking, without touching? Does knowledge transfer between the senses on its own?
- Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.
- If you felt no pain, and no hunger even while starving, survival would become impossible. Maybe pain is not a flaw but the very thing that ties you to yourself. Would a being that never suffers really count as alive?
- A single ant is stupid, but the colony acts intelligently: it builds bridges, farms, wages war. If the 'mind' lives not in the ants but in the connections between them, does your mind live not in your neurons but in the connections between them?