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Perspective: The Ship of Theseus

Mark Marek Photography
/
Wikimedia Commons

Identity is complicated. Is something the same after most or all of its parts have been replaced?

 

It’s a puzzling question and one that was originally illustrated by Plutarch with the Ship of Theseus—a wooden vessel that the ancient Athenians preserved by replacing elements one-by-one as they began to age and fall apart. Thus the paradox: does this ship remain the same after all its original components have been swapped out?

 

We now have a similar problem with aging rock bands. Is a band the same band after most or even all of its members have been replaced? Everyone in The Beach Boys—with the exception of Mike Love—have departed one way or another. The same is true with Ministry, where Al Jourgensen is the last man standing, and The Cure with Robert Smith. And then there are metal bands like GWAR and Napalm Death, which have no original members.

 

Are these bands the same bands? If you paid to see GWAR in Chicago in 2024, was it really GWAR you saw or was it a tribute act? Is the identity of a band its personnel, the material they perform, or something else entirely? And how it is that these groups do not function like a professional sports team, with member aging-out and the organization grabbing a first-round draft pick out of the Julliard school? If this were the case, the Rolling Stones could continue to tour well into the next century.

 

I’m David Gunkel, and that’s my (rather perplexing) perspective.

Northern Illinois University professor and author