In the lockdown, the local sports car club turned philosophical and queried, if the parts of a historic car being restored are replaced part after part, at what point does the old car cease to exist, replaced by a new one? I wondered. If the paradox - called the Sorites paradox - applied to bands. If you keep replacing members, at what point have you created a new band?
For those on Facebook, here’s the link to the original club post (they created sn interesting illustration). Otherwise, I quoted their description of the paradox below.
https://www.facebook.com/manilasportsca ... 07/?type=3
“THE SHIP OF THESEUS IN THE CONTEXT OF RESTORING OLD SPORTS CARS. Locked down in our respective garages, MSCC turns philosophical The paradox is illustrated thus:-
“The ancient Greeks revered the hero Theseus, an early King of Athens, who slew the Minotaur in an epic battle. To honor him, they kept his ship in a harbour for hundreds of years. As the years went by and the wooden parts of the ship began to rot, the Greeks replaced them with new timbers, until finally, after a few centuries, every part had been replaced.
“The question then is this: is the ship still the ship of Theseus? If not, at what point did it become a new, different ship?“