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The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. Theseus was the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, and the question was raised by ancient philosophers : If the ship of Theseus were kept in a harbor and every part on the ship were replaced one at a time, would it then be a new ship?
Some follow-up questions are common: If it is not the same ship, then at what point did it stop being the ship of Theseus? If it is the same ship, then could all the removed pieces be reassembled to form a ship, and would that be the ship of Theseus?
The concept is one of the oldest in Western philosophy, going back to the time of 500–400 BC. It is a common theme in the field of metaphysics.