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comment by Saouka
Saouka  ·  4049 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Change using Theseus's Ship

So, you're saying that Theseus' Ship and The Ship Theseus Sailed In On are the same ship if they refer to the same object? That is to say, if we both have the same object in mind when we talk about them?

I'd really like a more specific way of identifying if they are the same thing; how would we explain to someone who hadn't seen either ship the features that make them identical? Or would you say they'd accept them as identical the second we claimed them so through our use of language?





b_b  ·  4049 days ago  ·  link  ·  

How would you explain a jury trial to someone who had never observed one? Descriptivism doesn't work, because there are more levels of understanding than an atomized one (and besides, the putative words you would use to describe a higher level concept still need definitions themselves). Thesues' ship is Theseus' ship, because we say it is. The boards from which it is made are irrelevant. There is no baser level of explaining than pointing at an object an naming it. This is how we learn language.