The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning

by Iain McGilchrist

You may know the ‘Ship of Theseus’ paradox, also known as the ‘Growing Paradox’, because it arises in the case of all living things. It goes like this: the ship in which Theseus returned to Athens from his exploits in Crete was preserved there in the harbour as a memorial. With time the timbers perished one by one and were replaced, so that after thirty years none of the original timbers remained. Was this still the Ship of Theseus? This is an analogue of the problem that few of the cells in my body were there a year ago – so is it still my body? To anyone seeing the whole, and who realises that everything flows, the answer is clearly ‘yes’. As Novalis remarked, our body is a moulded river. However, to someone who sees only parts and believes that permanence is stasis, the answer is ‘no’.