Ship of Theseus: The Personal Version
We usually treat this as a logic puzzle for ancient history, but lately, I’ve realized I am the experiment. I am the ship. As the ship’s wooden planks rotted, they replaced each piece one by one with new, stronger timber. Overtime, not a single original piece remained.
Now the question is... is it still the same ship? And if you took all the old, rotting planks and built a second boat, which one would be the “real” ship of Theseus?
This is a fun exercise I enjoy talking about, but lately, I’ve been looking in the mirror and wondering... Am I currently sailing a ship made of new wood?
It sparked a question in me: could I be my own version of the Ship of Theseus? About 3 months ago from posting this, I had long hair that went a little past my shoulders and 5/8th of an inch ear gauges. Fast forward to now. I have a 4 guard all over with a taper and I’ve removed my plugs, now my ears are closing. I’ve also gone back to my black outfit comfort zone. My mother’s friend said I now look like a young adult. My silhouette changed from a mushroom cloud on my shoulders to now seeing my head shape. I no longer worry about whether I brought a hair tie and I touch my head more often. A lot did change but... did I change?
Well my physicality did. I no longer take forever in showers and to dry my hair. I don’t have to clean my ears and gauges the way I used to. And whatever outfits I pick I’ll be safe because black, grey and white are easy to combine. But I’m still me right? I still like writing, photography, and design. That didn’t go away because I changed my appearance. But could it?
A small disclaimer before I state my idea. This is simply my own thought experiment. Could I find articles and data on this? Yes. But one, that takes the fun out of making my own thoughts. Two, I want to write as if you and I are speaking, so feel free to leave comments and discuss with me.
What if we took a feminine woman and completely changed her appearance? Give her a combover. Swap her wardrobe for men’s clothing. Put men’s glasses on her face, even if she doesn’t need them. Would she stay the same feminine woman? Or would her own appearance be enough to start questioning herself and start believing it to be true? Would other people treating her as a man contribute to her own psyche and have her start believing she’s a man? Or at the very least start acting like one?
So in that regard, did me cutting my long hair off and taking out my gauges change me? Or did I change, thus making me remove those things? I would like to know what you think. But in short I think it is possible. If the woman were to cut her hair short, dress like a man and be treated as such, she wouldn’t be as feminine and would start to embody masculine traits.
So if you believe what I’ve said, physical changes don’t stay on the surface. They alter your behavior, your routine, and how others treat you. That shift feeds back into how you think and see yourself. When external change shifts how you see yourself, something real has changed. Not only your appearance. So the line between physical change and identity change is blurrier than we think. The Ship of Theseus applies to people as much as it does to boats.
Ok now let’s give this a name. There are two ideas at play here. Materialism and mereology. Materialism in short is the idea that we are the sum of our parts. When those parts change, the hair, the weight, the clothes, the materials that make us up are different. So by definition the person must be different too. Mereology asks us to look at the transition. At what point does a collection of changes become a change in the whole? Is identity found in the individual planks of our habits and appearance? Or does our identity exist as a whole, regardless of what the parts are doing?
Now some would say: no, your core identity stays fixed. Growing or cutting your hair doesn’t make you a different person. But the piece asks: are you sure? Because if enough external changes pile up and reshape your psychology, the line between surface change and identity change gets blurry fast.
And another important question. Is there a threshold where accumulated change becomes a new person? Or is identity simply a story we tell ourselves to feel like the same person over time?
I would love to know what you think and have a healthy and productive discussion about this.