It’s a classic thought experiment in philosophy about identity and change:
Imagine the ship of the hero Theseus is kept in a museum.
Over time, its wooden planks rot and are replaced one by one.
Eventually, every single part of the ship has been replaced.
The dilemma is: 👉 Is it still the same ship as Theseus’ ship?
- That depends on you, if you call it Theseus’s Ship then it is,and if you deny it then it is not.
And it can go further:
Suppose someone collects the old planks and rebuilds the original ship.
Now which one is the “real” ship of Theseus—the fully replaced one in the museum, or the one rebuilt from the original parts?
- The real ship is whichever you want, either one, both, or none. Ultimately nothing is permanent therefore there is no permanent self.
- The answer can be explained from the Buddha’s three marks of existence, i.e. Non-Permanence, Non-Satisfaction, Non-Self.