One thing I've found to be quite interesting recently was the story of Theseus' ship also known as Theseus' Paradox. This paradox is essentially a thought experiment that makes thinkers ponder our idea of identity, consciousness and being. If you were to replace every single physical part of your body, would you still be the same person? Someone may say that their bodies don't really have anything to do with who they are, but consider the idea that your physical attributes, the way you think about them, the way society sees them, in turn, determines certain parts of who you are. Not to mention, the body, in general, is extremely important when it comes to identity. So, would you still be you if every part of you was replaced?
The paradox speaks of the story of Theseus, a king from ancient Greece, and his ship. Due to his participation in countless naval battles, a ship was erected in his honor as a memorial at a port. It was named "Ship of Theseus" and was preserved for hundreds of years. Obviously, as years went on, the wood started to rot and therefore needed to be replaced. This is where the paradox begins. This seemingly inconspicuous story of a ship from Athens Greece brought upon this thought experiment in Philosophy that questions when things stop being what they are. How much change would have to occur for something to become completely different from what it was? What exactly makes something what it is?
As the wood started to rot, workers came in and replaced the planks. Does replacing one plank no longer make it Theseus's Ship? What about 30 planks? What if all planks were replaced but one? Is it still the same ship? Does it matter if the new planks are made of the same wood? There are so many more questions that can be asked about this ship to show how complex the idea of identity and consciousness is. What if the ship changed so much that it can no longer function as a ship should? In other words, what if because you've changed so much something you believed to be a fundamental part of who you are also changed? Imagine, if you're a person who got into an accident and had to receive a lot of transplants, whether visible or not, are you still the same person?
What if you could change your eye color, skin color, hair color, hair type, body type, easily and permanently? A great deal of us are extremely attached to our physical attributes because of the way they shaped us and our view of the world. However, there's a part of us that believes that who we are is something that cannot simply be changed by a change in our physical state. Understand, every single cell that you have in your body right now is not the ones you started with (assuming you're older than seven years old). Different cells in your body renew themselves at different paces, but every seven to ten years, all the cells in your body has replaced themselves. The cells that make up who you are. More than that, I can bet that most of you are completely different in personality than how you were seven to ten years ago. You know and understand things now that have changed who you are. The question is, have those things really "changed" you, or have they just surfaced a part of you that was always there? However, anyone who answers these questions relating to Theseus' ship and identity, in general, will be right in some ways but vastly incorrect in others.
As Heraclitus says, you cannot step into the same river twice. Things change over time. So, why do we still see them as the same thing? When we look at civilizations and how far they've come, they've changed so much. The people that inhabited them are no longer here, the landscape has changed after hundreds of years, the traditions have changed, the societal culture has changed, yet we still call it by the same name even though its past would be utterly unrecognizable compared to its present.
So, are you the you from yesterday? Was there anything significant enough that could have changed you in some way? Does it matter that the change is gradual? Even if yesterday was like any other day from your weekly routine, something will be different. While Theseus' Paradox and the questions it asks may be quite difficult for a person to wrap their head around, there's one thing we can be sure of (at least that I believe to be true): you cannot live the same day twice no matter how hard you try, and you are not the same person you that you were yesterday.
