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.