The Ship of Theseus and HMS Victory: Exploring Identity and Continuity Through History

The Ship of Theseus and HMS Victory: Exploring Identity and Continuity Through History

04 Sep 24
Posted by: OC Stephanie Winter
10 minutes, 15 seconds read
Message from the Editor

In this second article in our series from the Pellew Division at BRNC, the author raises a fundamental philosophical quandary by placing HMS Victory in the same conceptual category as the Kyoto Golden Pavilion or Notre-Dame de Reims. A 10 minute read.

This essay seeks to use the Ship of Theseus paradox to interrogate the philosophical implications of HMS Victory; combining notions of identity, continuity and historicity. As a case study, HMS Victory provides an excellent opportunity to analyse the Ship of Theseus paradox as Victory is currently undergoing, and has historically been subject to, vast restoration and repair. The Ship of Theseus is a classical thought experiment that interrogates the nature of identity and change. The thought experiment concerns whether an object that has had all its constituent parts replaced is the same objec…

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