There is a legal answer to the question, and the answer is yes, it would continue to be the same ship, at least according to Lloyds of London.
In philosophical terms, also the same boat. It has continued to exit as something we would recognise as a ship throughout, and has not been modified, merely repaired.
That “modern embellishment” is not a great example. It changes the context of the ship’s existence from a physical entity to a legal entity. I like the thought experiment but if you keep changing basic definitions it will get you less than nowhere
The literal joke is that the article has become an example of the very thing it describes, and perhaps a better example than the modern embellishment example
Conceptually similar, a couple of guys wrote software to create every possible eight note melody and successfully received a copyright for the collection as a means to protect future musicians from lawsuits claiming copyright infringement.
If you take a board and split it into any amount of pieces, they’re all the same board, just in pieces.
If you take a board and put it somewhere else on the ship it’s the same board.
If you have two boards which were manufactured as they are now, (ie they were cut into their desired shape and considered complete boards), even if they’re the same size and from the same tree, they are different boards.
A board becomes its own distinct entity once cut from its source wood with intention to make a board and is considered complete (ready to use).
Add comment