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[personal profile] med_cat

The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other.

In Greek mythology, Theseus, the mythical king of the city of Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos after slaying the minotaur and then escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians would commemorate this by taking the ship on a pilgrimage to Delos to honour Apollo. A question was raised by ancient philosophers: If no pieces of the original made up the current ship, was it still the Ship of Theseus? Furthermore, if it was no longer the same, when had it ceased existing as the original ship?

In contemporary philosophy, the thought experiment has applications to the philosophical study of identity over time. Within the contemporary philosophy of mind, it has inspired a variety of proposed solutions and concepts regarding the persistence of personal identity.

(Read more, and see the illustrations, in this Wikipedia article

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[personal profile] sallymn

peripatetic [per-uh-puh-tet-ik]

adjective:
1 of, relating to, or given to walking
2 moving or traveling from place to place; itinerant
noun:
1 a person who walks or travels about
2 (initial capital letter) a member of the Aristotelian school

Examples:

When he pulls up at Lark Hall, a ramshackle seaside house that has been turned into a retirement home, he knows it is the final stop in his peripatetic itinerary. (Stephen Holden, Caine breathes life into film on old age, The Herald Tribune, May 2009)

And Witold, who leads the peripatetic life of a travelling artist, must serve as a local trinket, a curio, for the global flow of commerce. (Jennifer Wilson, J M Coetzee's Interlingual Romance, The New Yorker, September 2023)

I've always been peripatetic, so I'm happy to live in lots of places. (Nicole Elphick, Michael Snelling's secret Sydney, The Guardian, October 2015)

This duty discharged, he subsided into the bosom of the family; and, entertaining himself with a strolling or peripatetic breakfast, watched, with genteel indifference, the process of loading the carriage. (Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop)

There were the Italian peripatetic vendors of weather-glasses, who had their headquarters at Norwich. (Herbert Jenkins, The Life of George Borrow)


(click to enlarge)


Origin:

mid-15c, Peripatetik, 'a disciple of Aristotle, one of the set of philosophers who followed the teachings of Aristotle,' from Old French perypatetique (14c) and directly from Medieval Latin peripateticus 'pertaining to the disciples or philosophy of Aristotle,' from Greek peripatētikos 'given to walking about' (especially while teaching), from peripatein 'walk up and down, walk about,' from peri 'around, about' + patein 'to walk, tread'. Aristotle's custom was to teach while strolling through the Lyceum in Athens. In English, the philosophical meaning is older than that of 'person who wanders about' (1610s). As an adjective, 'walking about from place to place, itinerant,' from 1640s, often with a tinge of humor. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Are you someone who likes to think on your feet? If so, you've got something in common with the followers of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. Not only a thinker and teacher, Aristotle was also a walker, and his students were required to walk along beside him as he lectured while pacing to and fro. Thus it was that the Greek word peripatētikos (from peripatein, meaning 'to walk up and down') came to be associated with Aristotle and his followers. By the way, the covered walk in the Lyceum where Aristotle taught was known as the 'peripatos' (which can either refer to the act of walking or a place for walking). (Merriam-Webster)

[identity profile] theidolhands.livejournal.com
so·lip·sist [ˈsō-ləp-ˌsi-zt]:
origin: (1874) Latin; solus= "alone" + ipse= "self"

noun (also, adjective: so·lip·sis·tic)
1. The philosophical notion that only the self can be proven to exist, ostensibly meaning that perhaps nothing else really does (or cannot truly be known) and that the world may be a unique delusion; idealism; skepticism.
some psychologists believe that infants are born solipsists and eventually learn to reject it as empathy and experiences with others increase.
"solipsism syndrome" is often brought on by long periods of isolation, a complete rejection or detachment of the outside world (see also: depersonalization disorder, hikikomori).

2. Narcissism; total obsession with the self and your own feelings or desires to the extent that no one else's matter.

Antonyms: altruistic, benevolent, magnanimous, self-sacrificing.
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[personal profile] med_cat
es·cha·to·log·i·cal adjective \(ˌ)es-ˌka-tə-ˈlä-ji-kəl, ˌes-kə-\


1: of or relating to eschatology or an eschatology
2: of or relating to the end of the world or the events associated with it in eschatology

Eschatology:

1: a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind
2: a belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind; specifically : any of various Christian doctrines concerning the Second Coming, the resurrection of the dead, or the Last Judgment

Etymology:

Greek eschatos last, farthest

First Known Use: 1844

Example:

To enter into the world of Putin’s favorite philosophers is to enter a world full of melodrama, mysticism and grandiose eschatological visions.

(Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/opinion/brooks-putin-cant-stop.html)
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