I am not sure what heading to put this under. the riddle goes something like this:
A man has a great love for his boat. He loves his boat so much that every time a wooden board gets broken he fixses it with a new piece. It has now gotten to the point were every peice of that boat, one time or anthor, has been relplaced with a new one. My question is, Is this the same boat the man loves or a completely new boat?
My friends and I are split but my thought is that the man that loves his boat would love it for what it is on the endside as corny as that sounds. What do you think?
he loves the fact that he can go on the water and do stuff. thats why he loves the boat. thats the thing that he loves, he doesnt love the existence of the boat itself. it continues to do that after being replaced. this also applies to whatever allegory would contain a more relatable instance of the illusion of loving something purely in itself as opposed to simply loving the good things that result from the existence of the thing.
The boat is no longer the physically the same boat that the man bought. In fact, within nano-seconds (or more likely less) of his purchase the boat is no longer the same. The physical world is constantly in a state of flux. You can also think that the man who owns the boat is also changing physically from one second to the next.
However, the conception of his “boat” remains the same. While physically the boat has completely changed, the man’s internal conception or label of “his boat” remains the same. Humans inevitably give some objects a kind of timeless status when they internally conceptualise or label them, despite their constant physical changing.
Well you do indeed step into rivers before swiming, unless swimming of hard rocks or in the mud is what you have in mind. yes techniacal you can never step in the same river twice. with the boat well maybe anthor issue. It could be possable that he has used the boat as a symbol of his wife or girlfriend. with a case like that, can you step in the same girl twice? (there is no need to post an answer to that last comment)
strictly biologically speaking you cant love the same woman your whole life out. its impossible. simply for the reason that every cell in her body will die and be replaced constantly.
so regarding the boat, women and rivers you cant do anything with it twice as purely physically speaking everything changes. instead everything is a concept of itself and we do things with the concept and not the thing physically.
is your point that even within a ever changing reality there are some things that will stay constants? however purposeless, are these few bits and peices there to remind us of what was originally intended?
well yes things change. but memorys don’t change aside form becoming faded. the past doesn’t change, if it did we would have known about it. people do change, but they are still what they were ten seconds ago, are you following this? not that in ten seconds you are the same but the you frozen in time is same. so if indeed the boat is a prosonifaction of his wife on say the day she died, then the boat won’t change because of the person can no longer exibit any humanly traits other than decompastion. sorry for the lack of periods.
The power of possesions. When you buy a material something and you love that material something, then it breaks - do you go out and buy a new one or do you fix your old one? If you’d buy a new one, then your question is answered. If not, continue reading.
If you chose to fix it, then I ask you, is it still the same thing? If you say its not, then it is something new, and your question is answered. If you say it is, then continue reading.
If it breaks again and again until every single piece of it is replaced, would you still consider it the same thing? Therein lies your answer to the riddle.
Everyones answer may differ… But such is philosophy.
Indeed, The that would be philosophy but I think this question has envolved into something greater, Doese the past change. I personal think what happends has happend and does not change, I thought in was unamismis too.
the old is someone elses creation…the new is his creation.
Should mean more to him…and would make the original builder proud to know he liked it so much he held onto and repaired it rather than toss it away and simply buy another newer model.
How does it make Ford feel seeing people restore all their 35 year old mustangs?
the boat he began with and the boat he gradually construct out of long term repairs…is one and the same boat…it has been transformed… it has become very different…but it is still the boat he began with…
The Form of the Boat is always the same.
(unless it’s a motor boat or a cruise liner, but alas such distinctions are unnecessary at this time, we are dealing with a little boat, for this man)
If we repair something have we
replaced it…with the same thing…
