Theseus's paradox (Ship of Theseus)
E168846
Theseus's paradox, or the Ship of Theseus, is a classic philosophical thought experiment that questions whether an object that has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Theseus's paradox (Ship of Theseus) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1475615 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theseus's paradox (Ship of Theseus) Context triple: [Theseus, associatedConcept, Theseus's paradox (Ship of Theseus)]
-
A.
Epimenides paradox
The Epimenides paradox is a classic self-referential logical puzzle arising from a Cretan philosopher’s claim that all Cretans are liars, illustrating the problem of statements that refer to their own truth or falsehood.
-
B.
Barber paradox
The Barber paradox is a self-referential logical puzzle about a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves, illustrating a contradiction similar to Russell’s paradox.
-
C.
Yablo's paradox
Yablo's paradox is a self-referential logical paradox involving an infinite sequence of sentences, each saying that all later sentences in the sequence are false, which challenges traditional notions of semantic paradox and self-reference.
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D.
Russell’s paradox
Russell’s paradox is a foundational logical contradiction in naive set theory that reveals problems with sets that contain themselves, leading to major developments in modern logic and the axiomatization of set theory.
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E.
Berry paradox
The Berry paradox is a self-referential logical paradox arising from phrases like “the smallest positive integer not definable in under eleven words,” which appears to define exactly such a number while claiming it cannot be defined.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theseus's paradox (Ship of Theseus) Target entity description: Theseus's paradox, or the Ship of Theseus, is a classic philosophical thought experiment that questions whether an object that has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.
-
A.
Epimenides paradox
The Epimenides paradox is a classic self-referential logical puzzle arising from a Cretan philosopher’s claim that all Cretans are liars, illustrating the problem of statements that refer to their own truth or falsehood.
-
B.
Barber paradox
The Barber paradox is a self-referential logical puzzle about a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves, illustrating a contradiction similar to Russell’s paradox.
-
C.
Yablo's paradox
Yablo's paradox is a self-referential logical paradox involving an infinite sequence of sentences, each saying that all later sentences in the sequence are false, which challenges traditional notions of semantic paradox and self-reference.
-
D.
Russell’s paradox
Russell’s paradox is a foundational logical contradiction in naive set theory that reveals problems with sets that contain themselves, leading to major developments in modern logic and the axiomatization of set theory.
-
E.
Berry paradox
The Berry paradox is a self-referential logical paradox arising from phrases like “the smallest positive integer not definable in under eleven words,” which appears to define exactly such a number while claiming it cannot be defined.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
philosophical thought experiment
ⓘ
philosophical thought experiment ⓘ |
| addressesConcept |
change
ⓘ
identity over time ⓘ material constitution ⓘ numerical identity ⓘ persistence ⓘ qualitative identity ⓘ |
| appliedTo |
artifacts
ⓘ
biological organisms ⓘ legal identity of objects ⓘ organizations ⓘ software systems ⓘ |
| attributedTo | Plutarch ⓘ |
| canonicalScenario | a ship whose planks are gradually replaced over time ⓘ |
| centralQuestion |
whether a ship that has had all its parts replaced is the same ship
ⓘ
whether an object remains the same when all its parts are replaced ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | intuitive notion of sameness ⓘ |
| exampleOf | puzzle about identity and change ⓘ |
| field |
metaphysics
ⓘ
ontology ⓘ philosophy of identity ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ |
| hasAlias |
Ship of Theseus
ⓘ
Theseus's paradox ⓘ |
| hasPhilosophicalUse |
illustrating tension between change and persistence
ⓘ
testing theories of identity over time ⓘ |
| historicalOrigin | ancient Greek philosophy ⓘ |
| influenced |
modern metaphysics of identity
ⓘ
philosophy of personal identity ⓘ |
| involvesEntity |
Theseus
ⓘ
ship ⓘ |
| keyIssue |
whether complete replacement preserves identity
ⓘ
whether gradual replacement affects identity ⓘ |
| raisesQuestion | which of two resulting ships is the original ship ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Leibniz's law
ⓘ
linked to:
identity of indiscernibles
Sorites paradox ⓘ constitution vs identity distinction ⓘ endurantism ⓘ four-dimensionalism ⓘ material coincidence ⓘ perdurantism ⓘ problem of change ⓘ |
| sourceText |
Plutarch's Life of Theseus
ⓘ
linked to:
Life of Theseus
|
| usedIn |
discussions of mereology
ⓘ
discussions of object persistence ⓘ discussions of ontology of objects ⓘ discussions of personal identity ⓘ |
| variantScenario |
reconstruction of the original ship from discarded parts
ⓘ
two ships claiming to be the original after replacement and reconstruction ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Theseus's paradox (Ship of Theseus) Description of subject: Theseus's paradox, or the Ship of Theseus, is a classic philosophical thought experiment that questions whether an object that has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.