An empty question about sameness

As long as you know what aspect of sameness matters to the questioner, you can provide an answer. If you’re a forensic investigator searching for traces of DNA left before the ship went into dock, the boat you want is the one rebuilt from original parts. If you’re Theseus, your ship is the totally renovated one. If you know what aspect of sameness matters, you can provide a clear answer. What you can’t do is answer the general question, ‘but which one is really the same ship?’ It’s an empty question: it looks like a genuine question that should have an answer, but it has none. All sorts of questions of sameness in real life are of this kind.

Saved 23 April 2015

#identity #questions #context