Can I have your attention? So, we are going to set sail and before we hit land, I want us to replace every piece of the ship. I imagined the ship’s captain calling his crew together to explain their mission. I watched the energy rise from the periphery because I was both hungover and struck by the story but from a completely different angle. Back and forth the argument would go like a tennis match being played at warp speed. Some went with it has to be based on the fact that the ship was named and therefore retains its identity. Some built an argument around the physics and how no two items are exactly the same. Is it the same ship? Yes? No? Maybe so? Why? Professor Jacobsen played the role of traffic cop in the middle of a jammed roundabout as the back and forth picked up energy! Well, the classroom lit up and the healthy debate began.
We would learn that it is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object, which has had all of its components replaced, remains fundamentally the same object. This was all part of his introducing t he ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus’ Paradox. “If Theseus sails his ship from port A to port B and has every piece of the ship replaced en route is it the same ship?” As parts of the ship needed repair, it was rebuilt plank by plank. The ship in which he returned was long preserved. One year, Theseus braved the labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur. For years, the Athenians had been sending sacrifices to be given to the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull beast who inhabited the labyrinth of Knossos. Theseus is remembered in Greek mythology as the slayer of the Minotaur. How would Rocky connect with the class? How would he engage us and capture our interest? He shared a story about Theseus. After that, your mere presence pretty well guaranteed you a passing grade. The only real challenge was waking up and getting to class. A Friday morning Philosophy 101 session was considered a bird class. Like the class in Animal House, most of us were hungover.
SAIL FORTH AND CONQUER MY CAPTAIN FULL
Professor Rocky Jacobsen stared out at a room full of first year freshman, similar to the way Donald Sutherland looked upon his class in the cult classic movie, Animal House.
Time to go back in time to my days at Laurier University circa 1986, for a little Philosophy 101 debate!