Identity Over Time - An Analysis
" The more things change, the more they stay the same." - Jean Baptiste Karr Credit Imagine a ship docked in the city. It is the ship of a mighty warrior and his crew who have fought the fiercest of armies and the most fearsome of monsters. They have finally arrived home, leaving the ship at the harbour, and securing their place in history. Now, the boat is the pride and joy of the city, attracting many tourists from all over the world. It is a mighty vessel, made of the finest wood and decorated to the brim. Over the next thousand years, the fine wood starts to deteriorate and the townspeople decide to replace each piece of wood on the ship with a new one. Each plank and board on the ship is replaced until one day when the entire ship is replaced by different planks of wood than the ship that was sailed on by the warriors. Are the two ships different? It can be argued that they are the same ship, as it gradually changed over the years, and in principle, they st...