If I met my loud-mouthed self from a decade or two ago, I'd probably kick his ass.
Some of the beliefs I held I have reassessed or dropped entirely. Its a philosophical idea, that one is not the person one was before. Mentally and physiologically (even atomically), we are each in a constant state of change. If I have a leg replaced with an artificial limb, or even a heart, at what point am I no longer myself?
The Platonist Plutarch offers the idea with the example in the Ship of Theseus that if a part of the whole is replaced, is the whole the same as it was before? If all of the parts are replaced, is the whole the same as before? Hobbes continues the pondering by asking if what if the original parts are reassembled as a whole after being replaced? Which is the original, if either?
In society, can the addition or removal of one individual change the nature of that society?
No comments:
Post a Comment