The ship of Theseus

Recently, I watched a Japanese drama "The Ship of Theseus". The content was roughly like this: Tamura's father was a policeman, accused of poisoning and killing people, arrested and sentenced to death, but claimed to be innocent. As the son of a criminal, Tamura has also been criticized and accused by the world. Twenty-eight years later, because his favorite wife made him believe in his father, he decided to investigate the case of that year and go to prison to see his father. Unexpectedly, he suddenly fell into the fog and returned to 1989 before the incident. He wanted to stop it and protect his family's smile.

As a result, he found the real murderer through his own efforts, saved his father, but lost his life. As a result, Tamura, who was born later, and his family lived a happy life. However, we can't help thinking: when a person's fate has been changed in the course of history, is this person still the same as before?

This is a famous philosophical problem in ancient Greece, and it is also the origin of the drama The Ship of Theseus.

The 30-paddle boat that young people from theseus and Athens took when they returned from Crete was left as a monument by people in Athens. Over time; Wood gradually decays, and people in Athens will replace it with new wood. Finally, every piece of wood in the boat was changed; Therefore, philosophers began to ask: This ship has no original wood, so is it still the original theseus ship?

The philosopher Heraclitus believes that one cannot step into the same river twice. Because the new water will flow into the original river, even if people cross the same river, it's not the first time, and everything is changing. The ship of Theseus after that is definitely not the ship before.

Aristotle, a philosopher, explained this problem with his four-cause theory. He believes that all perceptual entities, including natural objects and man-made objects, have four reasons: material reasons, formal reasons, dynamic reasons and purpose reasons. Although the material of Theseus' ship has changed, the design of the ship, that is, the form and use of the ship, loading and transportation have not changed. Aristotle believes that for these two reasons, it can be said that Theseus' ship is still the original ship.

Seeing such an interesting debate, you will think of an interesting topic: Are you still the same as yesterday, because after all, it changes every day. What qualities do people use to determine their existence when they die? History is changing. What is the inheritance relationship between the present country and the ancient dynasty? There have been many arguments about the editing of baby genes before, and how to define the identity of that child.

The philosopher's thought is a wonderful existence. Sometimes I think it will take me a long time to understand their ideas, and it is hard to see how they logically think and summarize abstract problems. So philosophy is called love wisdom!