An institution can replace every component and every member and still be treated as the same institution, which is what makes continuity claims contestable.
Plutarch's version asked about a ship whose planks were all replaced. The institutional case is sharper, since organisations claim continuity of obligation across total turnover of members and premises.
In practice
- A cathedral whose every stone has been replaced across eight centuries is visited as the same building, and nobody counts that a trick.
- A company that has replaced every employee, its premises and its product still owes the pension promises made by nobody now present.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- The folklore of office life