Vern's Volvo

Zelun Wang

Humanities Blog—Vern’s Volvo and Grace the Meticulous Mechanic

This paradox demonstrates the fact that there is no absolute truth—that truth depends on perspective. From one perspective, the heap of original parts is Vern’s Volvo, while from a different point of view Vern’s Volvo is the vehicle that Vern currently drives. That is not to say that both truths exist simultaneously. A person who truly feels that the heap of parts is Vern’s Volvo would not concede that the car Vern currently drives is Vern’s Volvo, and vice versa. Instead, each truth exists separately in its own dimension that is constructed from each distinct perspective.

Let me explain.

People who place less emphasis on material goods and more on practical application would consider Vern’s Volvo to be the vehicle that Vern currently drives. Car owners and enthusiasts alike always feel some possessive attachment to their vehicles. However, that attachment dramatically decreases when the motorists sell or get rid of their cars. People who sell their vehicles do not come across it again, parked in the street, and say, “Hey, that’s my car”. They may acknowledge that they once owned and operated that vehicle, but they would no longer consider that car to be theirs’ because the car is no longer part of their lives. For people who hold this point of view, there is no single moment when Vern’s Volvo changed. Vern’s Volvo exists in a dynamic state—every time Vern brings his car to the garage, a little bit of Vern’s Volvo is changed, but the vehicle that Vern uses on a daily basis remains his Volvo.

On the other hand, people who care more about genuine materials—examples of such people may be coin collectors or purchasers of original art—would consider the pile of parts to be Vern’s Volvo. From the material perspective, the original vehicle is the “real thing,” regardless of Vern’s relationship with his car. People looking at this question from a physical point of view would put less thought into how Vern interacts with his car, and more focus on the fact that the pile of parts in Grace’s garage was the original vehicle that Vern purchased. People of this point of view would certainly agree that by the time every part of Vern’s Volvo has been replaced, Vern’s Volvo did change—the car Vern currently drives is no longer the original Volvo. But again, it is hard to define an exact time when the Volvo changed. Is it when Grace replaces the most expensive part—the engine or the transmission? Is it when Grace changes the body frame of the car? No. The overall change is significant, but this change occurs in tiny steps—part by part (thanks to the assembly line process). The concept of the change of Vern’s Volvo from the material point of view is not unlike the concept of the derivative (or conversely the integral) in calculus—that the mathematical change occurs in infinitely small steps, but adding an infinite number of those steps together results in a significant, measurable overall change (This one’s for you Tyler). Thus we cannot assign one moment that Vern’s Volvo became different, but can only look at the overall change.

I will re-emphasize that the two separate versions of truth are mutually exclusive. Although given my above explanation readers might accuse me of settling with a feeble compromise that results in both Vern’s current car and the pile of parts being “Vern’s Volvo,” such is not the case. At no point in my argument do I say that both entities are “Vern’s Volvo”. Instead, either the pile of parts OR the vehicle that Vern currently drives IS THE “Vern’s Volvo”. Indeed, only one of the two can be Vern’s Volvo from any perspective: From the materialist perspective, the original parts and not the currently used vehicle is Vern’s Volvo; and from the less physical and more practical perspective, the car that gets Vern to work every day is Vern’s Volvo, as opposed to the idle pile of parts. It is true that people may not be polarized into opposite groups adopting solely the “materialist perspective” or the “practical perspective” when thinking about this question. It would not be at all surprising if individuals find merit in both perspectives. However, looking from any given perspective at any one time, people would conclude that Vern’s Volvo is either the car he drives or the original pile of parts, not both. While a person may agree with multiple perspectives, the two perspectives I have outlined are different and distinct and so it is impossible to blend the perspectives and say that Vern’s Volvo exists in two bodies at the same time. A person can only ponder this question from one perspective at a time, although he is free to change his perspective as frequently as he likes.

The discrepancy between the pile of parts in Grace’s garage and a functioning vehicle assembled from those parts is a minor one. If Grace is such a qualified mechanic, she should have no trouble putting together and taking apart the car at her pleasure, and so the difference between the pile of parts and the reassembled vehicle disappears in terms of this paradox. HOWEVER, if Vern then goes and drives the reassembled vehicle, then the question becomes much more convoluted. Let us stay away from this possibility, at least for now.

Know Thyself

a) It is difficult for a person to have a complete knowledge of himself. A person’s identity is made up of various values and experiences that cannot be summed up in a few sentences. I have had considerable difficulty these past few weeks trying to answer the general question, “Tell me about yourself,” that college interviewers so often pose. Thus, the most practical application of the phrase “Know thyself” is to be aware of one’s own specific strengths and weaknesses.

It is easy to illustrate the advantages of knowing one’s own strengths. By their senior year, most high school students will have discovered—through taking a diverse set of courses—which academic subjects they are strongest in. It makes sense that high school students who are most interested and proficient in math and science will contribute most to the world by pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers, while other students better at history and language arts would have greater success studying the humanities. Understanding one’s own academic strengths can lead to a more comfortable and productive life in the future.

It is equally as important for one to be aware of one’s own weaknesses, and to purposely avoid situations in which those weaknesses may cause harm. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet shows how knowing one’s own weaknesses can keep one out of trouble by demonstrating what happens when people do not know their own weaknesses. In the play, characters such as Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt are violent and rash by nature, as established through various details—for example, Romeo’s fickle love interest and Mercutio’s bizarre spoken lines. The characters are not aware of their propensities for violence, but rush into confrontational situations that ultimately result in their deaths. We, as the audience, cannot say how the play would have ended if the characters were more aware of their own violence. But it is tempting to imagine that if Romeo, Tybalt and Mercutio understood their tendencies to fight, they may have avoided confrontation altogether and lived longer, more fulfilling lives.

b) My greatest weakness in school is procrastination. To illustrate: during my sophomore year in high school, I worked on a science project involving Baker's yeast. I had two months to work on this project. I did not save everything for the last minute—I finished the experimental portion of the project about a month before I was scheduled to present. However, I also needed to analyze the data using statistical analysis techniques (which I did not know how to use), make a PowerPoint presentation, and create a poster board display. My error was in waiting until the night before my presentation to even begin the data analysis. To make things worse, I watched videos on Hulu.com until 9:00 pm before opening the Excel file containing my data. I did not finish the data analysis and PowerPoint work until well past midnight, and then I had to print, cut, and glue pictures and text blurbs onto my poster board. I ended up pulling what is colloquially known as an "all-nighter". For those of you who have never stayed up all night working on an assignment: it is not an enjoyable experience. I felt terrible presenting my project the next day and embarrassed myself in front of the entire class by forgetting to mention important parts of my research. Obviously, this episode was not the first time I procrastinated, but my “all-nighter” experience is my most unpleasant memory associated with procrastination.

I have tried many times to fix my procrastination problem without real success. At one point in my high school career, I deleted my Facebook account because I wasted a lot of time chatting with friends on the Internet. However, I ended up finding an excuse to reactivate my Facebook (I had no other way to ask a friend when an essay was due). I also tried to get into the habit of starting homework the moment I get home from school, but frequent snack breaks and ever-present distractions foiled my efforts at industry.

I realize that my procrastination is going to be a very serious problem in college, where I would have more flexibility to manage my own time and even more distractions to deal with. By now, I have identified this personal weakness that I need to address and hopefully remedy by the end of high school. I will not stop trying to end my procrastination problem. Maybe I need to shut myself in a computer-free room with only a desk, a lamp, and a textbook. Or perhaps I need to go to a library immediately after school to minimize distractions. No matter what method I use to stop procrastinating, my efforts to improve would not exist if I were not aware of my weakness.

c) I consider my easy-going nature to be a positive quality, although my relaxed nature may be responsible for my procrastination. I rarely stress about anything. Although pulling an “all-nighter” on a science project was unpleasant, at no point was I worried that I would not complete the assignment. I rarely worry about exams the way many of my peers do, whether I expect to do well on the tests or not. Stressing before a test does not help test performance, and I find that my laid-back nature allows me to do my best work under the circumstances.

My relaxed nature allows me to work well with other people. I really enjoy doing group projects. I can usually contribute by reassuring fellow group members when they begin to worry about deadlines, or by calmly settling disagreements that spawn from the stress of the work.

I am also very relaxed socially. We have all undoubtedly seen the “bar fight” scene in movies, when one man insults another man and smashed beer bottles become melee weapons. While I am firm about my values, I am slow to anger. If I were in a confrontational situation in a bar, I would look my adversary in the eye and walk away like a real man. In a sense, I am the opposite of the teenagers in Romeo and Juliet. I think about the consequences before I let my passions guide me in doing something foolish.

d) I feel that objectively reflecting on one’s own strengths and weaknesses is difficult because one’s pride often blurs one’s self-examination. Personal experiences related to one’s particular weakness may be embarrassing or painful. Interestingly, one’s own psyche can distort such emotional memory. Furthermore, recalling such episodes in one’s life may elicit emotions that further muddle one’s attempt at objectively writing about one’s weakness. Something similar occurs with strengths. Instead of unpleasant emotion, pride may embellish memories of times when one displayed one’s strengths.

I certainly do not like talking about myself, especially about my strengths and weaknesses. In fact, the strengths and weaknesses I talked about here are not my “greatest” strengths and weaknesses, though they would probably come in second in each category. I do not feel comfortable talking about what I consider to be my greatest strength, and if I tried to write about my greatest weakness I may just end up sobbing over the keyboard and never finishing this blog. I understand the importance of knowing—and dealing with—my true weakness. But this weakness is something that I have to overcome by myself, without the sympathy of the entire Internet.