This does not differ from any other “thing”. Take one grain of sand from a heap and “the heap” is still there, but scatter them all and it isn’t. To its fans, a football team is the “same” team even over a space of years that sees all the players changed. There are shrines in Japan, such as Ise Jingu, which are destroyed and rebuilt every 20 years but Ise Jingu is still Ise Jingu, considered to be renewed by the rebuilding, not replaced. The Ship of Theseus.
There is a big difference, actually. We do not punish heaps of sand. Society should move beyond everything that is analogous to killing an entire family for the careless cruelty of one member.
“It especially annoys me when racists are accused of ‘discrimination.’ The ability to discriminate is a precious faculty; by judging all members on one ‘race’ to be the same, the racist precisely shows himself incapable of discrimination.” — Christopher Hitchens
It seems to me that you and LVSN are slicing the implied concept this post describes into a referenced conceptual thing at different boundaries. I tried to explain how I see the difference, but found I’m uncertain in my guesses of both of your meanings, so all I can honestly claim is that both of your reactions are reasonable according to my mental concept parser, but that LVSN’s reaction highlights some of why I find this post important. Perhaps the point could be summarized, “it is important that any model of selfhood recognize that it is a thing which is defined by the thing itself”, thus including the same point you make and yet also distilling the insight the post is attempting to highlight.
This does not differ from any other “thing”. Take one grain of sand from a heap and “the heap” is still there, but scatter them all and it isn’t. To its fans, a football team is the “same” team even over a space of years that sees all the players changed. There are shrines in Japan, such as Ise Jingu, which are destroyed and rebuilt every 20 years but Ise Jingu is still Ise Jingu, considered to be renewed by the rebuilding, not replaced. The Ship of Theseus.
There is a big difference, actually. We do not punish heaps of sand. Society should move beyond everything that is analogous to killing an entire family for the careless cruelty of one member.
“It especially annoys me when racists are accused of ‘discrimination.’ The ability to discriminate is a precious faculty; by judging all members on one ‘race’ to be the same, the racist precisely shows himself incapable of discrimination.”
— Christopher Hitchens
I cannot see what your reply has to do with my comment or the OP.
It seems to me that you and LVSN are slicing the implied concept this post describes into a referenced conceptual thing at different boundaries. I tried to explain how I see the difference, but found I’m uncertain in my guesses of both of your meanings, so all I can honestly claim is that both of your reactions are reasonable according to my mental concept parser, but that LVSN’s reaction highlights some of why I find this post important. Perhaps the point could be summarized, “it is important that any model of selfhood recognize that it is a thing which is defined by the thing itself”, thus including the same point you make and yet also distilling the insight the post is attempting to highlight.