Better Call Saul, the Sorites Paradox, and The Ship of Theseus

Earlier today, u/MadameIronMouse, put up a great post that got me to thinking.

Jimmy's transformation into Saul is an interesting take on Sorites Paradox in philosophy. I'm by no means a philosophy expert.... I just enjoy learning and exploring the implications.

The way I understand the paradox, it deals with the idea of boundaries with the famous example: when does a grouping of objects become a heap (or pile, etc.). Here's a succinct explanation I saw on the interwebs:

The Paradox (restated)

Suppose that you have a full head of hair. That means that you probably have around 100,000 individual hairs. Now pull one of them out. Does that make you bald? Of course not. A single hair doesn’t make any difference. 99,999 hairs still make a full head of hair. If you carry on long enough, you will have none left and you will definitely be bald. You have moved from a state of unquestionable non-baldness to a state of unquestionable baldness by taking a series of steps that can never on their own have that effect. But when did the change come about?

...

The (Original) Paradox

⇒ 1 grain of sand does not make a heap.
⇒ If 1 grain does not make a heap, then 2 grains do not.
⇒ If 2 grains do not make a heap, then 3 grains do not.
[and so on until … ]
⇒ If 99,999 grains do not make a heap, then 100,000 grains do not.
⇒ So 100,000 grains of sand do not make a heap.
But at some point we will acknowledge that we do in fact have a heap of sand!

So with Jimmy: when do his accumulated actions make him Saul?

The thought-experiment proposed by the paradox illustrates the vague boundaries of classification. We can see Jimmy and we can see a later version of him that is Saul, but it is difficult to discern when the transformation occurs.

Another cool thought-experiment that deals with this issue is The Ship of Theseus. A ship is replaced one peace at a time over 1000 years and the question is: once all of the pieces are replaced, is it still the "Ship of Theseus." If it is no longer the "Ship of Theseus" when did it stop being so? If it still is the "Ship of Theseus" what is it that makes this so?

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TL;DR: Philosophical Paradoxes such as Sorites Paradox and the Ship of Theseus provide an interesting lens through which we can view the transformation from Jimmy to Saul on BCS.

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Submitted August 31, 2018 at 03:04PM by myowntwin https://ift.tt/2C4y0aJ