TED-Ed - Term 1 Week 3

Who am I? A philosophical inquiry - Amy Adkins

Throughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page, philosophers to the agora and seekers to the oracles. These murky waters of abstract thinking are tricky to navigate, so it’s probably fitting that to demonstrate the complexity, the Greek historian Plutarch used the story of a ship. Amy Adkins illuminates Plutarch’s Ship of Theseus.

1. Who was Theseus?

2. What did Theseus do in Crete before sailing home to Athens?

3. How long did the Athenians maintain the ship of Theseus in the harbour?

4. To maintain the ship of Theseus, how often did Athenians replace the parts on it?

5. When two things are numerically identical, it means:

6. Why is the question "Who am I" so difficult to answer?

7. When something is a paradox, it means that it seems illogical. How is the story of the Ship of Theseus a paradox?