Page "Ship of Theseus" Paragraph 29

# If the parts were intrinsically the basis for the ship, then therefore, one would be unable to take an individual part of the ship away and use that part for something else.

Also, it would not be possible that ship parts were existing as the intrinsic basis for something else prior to being parts of the Ship of Theseus.

Therefore, the parts of the ship could not have existed before the ship existed and visa-versa.

If the parts were intrinsically the basis for the ship, they could not exist as something else before or after the existence of the ship.

If they could, it would violate their intrinsic quality of ' being the basis for the Ship of Theseus.

' Or, they would be both intrinsically the basis for the ship and for a tree, tree bark, cotton, bee's wax, etc.

So, therefore, it would be valid to call the ship a tree or a beehive, which is incoherent.

This point and the next one strike at the heart of the Greek's issue with the argument about the Ship of Theseus.