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Re: Designing drugs and Hume's Analogy

Posted by Squiggles on October 16, 2007, at 11:09:02

In reply to Re: Designing drugs » unbottled, posted by Squiggles on October 16, 2007, at 9:15:39

David Hume's analogy of the personality to a ship:

"II. Self

What is a self, an identity, a mind, and where does the idea of such a thing even come from? Locke believed in the existence of minds, and so did Berkeley. Now Hume is going to wonder what a mind, or self, is.

This question was not new even in Hume's time. The ancients had raised the question in the following way:.

In ancient Greece there was a famous ship tied up in the harbor so that people could come see it and could bring their children to walk on its decks (much like today people want to walk on the USS Missouri, or on the ship on which their father fought in WWII, etc). This ship was famous because it had fought in an important battle. Over the years, however, as the ship aged, its rigging had to be replaced, and then its masts had to be replaced. Through the years it's deck and hull planking had all been replaced too, so that eventually every single item on the entire ship had been replaced. There was nothing left from the original ship. And yet during all those years and afterwards the sign on the dock still said "This is the ship that fought in the famous battle," and all the parents still brought their children and told them "This is the ship that fought in the famous battle."

Here's the question: Is it actually the same ship or not? Are the parents telling their children the truth or not? If there is not one molecule of material from the original ship remaining because everything has been slowly replaced, should the sign in front of it still say "This is the famous ship," or should it say "This is a replica of the famous ship?"-"

http://home.myuw.net/tkerns


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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071009/msgs/789578.html