(Ms. Kanika Sharma)
Ma’am told us about a very interesting story today. It was about “The ship of Theseus”.
The story is about – The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.
So, the question was – if it is a new ship when all the parts are replaced then at what point does it become a new ship?
I didn’t think it had a right or wrong answer, or an answer at all. I don’t think it provided me any more answers than it made me harder to find. I personally couldn’t conclude an answer for this during the class but now that I am writing about it, I think the ship was a ship even after the new parts, it’s basic functionality did not change.
It became a new ship if we only look at the material and the experiences the ship had, they were gone with the old parts. And the new parts were yet to experience them. This is still pretty confusing..
But some of my classmates really thought that the ship changed because the parts changed where as some thought it was the same despite the parts getting changed.
It was a pretty interesting discussion.
Ma’am also asked us about what makes us choose something. So we took pen for an example and everyone talked about why and how they think someone would choose a pen.
I think I go for thin, gel and light weight pens most of the times. There are also many more factors that affect the purchases ofcourse.
Everyone had their own preferences for buying a pen.
Then we tried forming enquiry question with respect to the purchase of pens. I am still a little confused as to how to come up with a right question but I’ll eventually get it.
There are many things to be taken into consideration while forming these too.
It was a very engaging class, I did not even realize when it ended. Looking forward to the next one already.
Learning portfolio 