Problem statement
The Theseus ship is a classic philosophical problem about identity. There is a lot written in the subject but in short you can summarize it as follows:
- You have a ship built of planks.
- You replace a plank with a new one, otherwise the ship is unchanged.
Already at this stage, the Greek philosopher Plutarch wondered if it was the same ship or a new one.
Note: most people say in this mode that it is the same ship.
- You continue to replace planks until all planks have been replaced with new ones on the entire ship.
Now the question is: is it still the same ship, even though all the planks have been replaced?
The philosopher Thomas Hobbes gave the problem an extra dimension. He suggested taking all the planks that had been replaced and assembling them into a ship exactly the same as the original. We now have two ships: the original ship which now consists entirely of new planks, and the new ship which consists of all the old planks from the original ship.
Which ship is really the "real" ship?
Holism or Reductionism?
The answer lies in the question of identity: What is it that defines an object?
A philosophical school believes that it is the parts that make up the whole based on a so-called reductionist starting point. Another school believes that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and that nothing can be described individually without context. This approach is called holism or holistic view.
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Prime Arch's principles and assumptions
A brief look at how Prime Arch defines Principle and Assumption as two meta-objects:
In the light of the above description of the Theseus ship, Prime Arch is based on two principles that become guidelines for formulating the assumptions that form the basis for Prime Arch's view of change over time.
These two principles lead to the following assumptions:
The identity is defined by its entirety
- The identity of an object is defined by its entirety, including its surroundings.
- An object is described by one dimension (composition), but relates to several dimensions (environment).
- If you replace all parts of the object (composition), it is still the same object.
- If you replace enough things in the environment, it can become a new object, even though all parts of the object are unchanged. Exactly when it becomes a new object is subjective.
The future is planned with type objects
- The planning of an object in the future takes place separately when the surroundings are unknown.
Current position and target position are relative
- There are two plateaus that are relative: Current Mode and Target Mode.
Stage modes are absolute
- Between the current position and the target position, absolute plateaus are defined as stage positions.
- The current mode is always now, which means that stage modes will be current modes as time goes on.
- The goal situation is always about 10 years away and can be seen to be in line with the vision, which can not be achieved either.