Sunday, March 13, 2016

The Ship of Theseus & the Persistence of Identity

"Throughout our lives, we come to inhabit the seven layers of identity, often interpolating between them and constantly changing within each. And yet somehow, despite this ever-shifting seedbed of personhood, we manage to think of ourselves as concrete selves — our selves.

Hardly any perplexity of human existence is more fascinating than the continuity of personal identity — the question of what makes you and your childhood self the “same” person, despite a lifetime of change, from your cells to your values.

Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert captured this paradox perfectly: “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.”

The Ship of Theseus: A Brilliant Ancient Thought Experiment Exploring What Makes You You

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/03/08/plutarch-the-ship-of-theseus-ted-ed/

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