Philosophy Explained: Anime Style.

The Real Going Merry?!

The Ship of Theseus is a real head scratcher. A famous Philosophical Identity concept used in many classes, it can be a little tough to wrap your head around, and yet, it is actually a simple concept when you get the gist. Before we go into it.. let's consider the following short story from Luffy and his Crew.

_____________________

"Oi Guys!" Franky walked over to the rest of the Straw Hat crew, grinning from ear to ear. "Check out what I've built!"

"WOOOOWW!" Luffy stared out in amazement at the familiar looking ship sitting in the water a few meters away. "It's.. THE GOING MERRY!!"

"YOU'RE RIGHT!!" Usopp roared.

Sure enough, the first ship the Straw Hats ever sailed on.. with it's goat's head prow, floated proudly before them..

"Yep, I somehow managed to gather all the burned planks and put her back together!" said Franky. "Except.. it wasn't sturdy enough to sail.. so each day I replaced one of the 100 planks with a brand new one from the Adam's Tree.."

"Refurbishing her! That's good!" said Usopp.

"Yeah.. eventually, I just replaced all the burned down planks with new ones." said Franky ."Now she's SUUUPER brand new!"

"Eh?" Luffy blinked, and looked over at the dock next to the Merry. "But.. then what's that?"

Another Going Merry was sitting there now... completely constructed out of burned planks.. in fact, the ship looked pretty deplorable.. just like it had when it had first been destroyed at Water 7...

"Oh.. I saved all the old burned planks and made an exact replica of the Merry with it.." said Franky. "Suuuuper cool huh? Sort of a tribute to what it was made of first!"

"But wait.. if that ship is completely made out of the old Going Merry's parts.. then isn't that the real Going Merry? And the other ship just a Brand New replica?" said Usopp.

"Uhhh.. NO! or.. yes... or.." Franky raised his large robotic arm and began scratching his head. "I... huh... not sure.."

"MY HEAD'S GOING TO EXPLODE!!" Luffy roared. "WHICH ONE IS THE REAL MERRY!!!?"

__________________

The Ship of Theseus is basically the same story here, only instead of Franky we have a random carpenter, and instead of the Merry, we have the legendary ship Theseus sailed on when he went to kill the Minotaur in Greek Legends!

The Going Merry was recreated from all it's old 100 total planks.. however, as time went by, considering the ship was burned and broken from it's initial destruction in Water 7, she needed to be refurished, so Franky replaced one of the 100 planks each day with a brand new plank of Adam's wood. 

By day 100, all of the Merry's planks are brand new!  But Franky keeps all the old planks and constructs an exact replica of the Going Merry with them next to the refurbished one..  so the question becomes thus.

Which is the real Going Merry?

There are many problems regarding this. Of course you could just say that all the old planks are the real Merry. But it wasn't ALWAYS the real Merry!

you see, at some point, the Merry was partially made of old planks, and partially made of new planks, during Franky's 100 day replacement of each and every plank. Now you can't say that the Going Merry is "Half Real", that just doesn't make sense in our current sense of either the English or Japanese language (or any language for that matter). 

So.. during the halfway phase.. are all the old planks in that pile over there the Real Going Merry? Or that half new and half old planky Ship the real Going Merry?

Now at the risk of making Luffy's head explode, let's go a little deeper. When we construct these different Going Merrys... we know two things.. there can only be ONE Going Merry, and there can't be TWO Going Merrys at a time! They can't both be the Going Merry, and yet they can't both NOT be the Going Merry.

Now it's okay if you can't solve this problem, by far nobody actually has. It's a thought experiment that explores Personal Identity, meant to encourage your critical thinking. This philosophy has also inspired some pretty awesome Science Fiction plots. Like, a man who has his memories taken from him.. and his memories are put into a cloned duplicate of him... which one is the real person?

That's all I have to say on the subject for now.. but if you wish to ask questions, feel free in the comments below! I'll be sure to update some more Anime Philosophy as I get more time!