When you cook a potato...

Dragon said:
Well, there are two ways we can go with this. One is that we can try to clarify what a potato is (i.e. through Aristotle's four causes, for example). Or we can ignore that and focus on what percentage of the potato has to be dissolved, or how dissolved it has to be, before it ceases to be a potato. But that would still bring us back to the definition of a potato.
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Yup.

Also if the definition is a strict one, the potato could stop being a potato upon cooking it, or even harvesting it from the ground, as both cause the potato to be different - chemically from cooking, or physically from removing the tops.
 
Potato is a pattern of matter that we have simply defined as potato. Once we eat potato, parts of it begin dissolving and become other things. During this process there is some potato and some other stuff. Eventually there is no potato left. The end.
 
Interesting question philosophically. Seemingly no answer can be "correct" as all these are personal potato truths. :)
Perhaps when the potato becomes part of a greater purpose, in becoming a "meal", or "sustenance"... It gives up itself to the greater good, and is no longer an individual, but part of something more meaningful to the beholder... then it becomes part of you, at least temporarily. ;)
 
Once your stomach acid turns it into glop.
 
define potato, when the potato that you ate know longer meets that definition then it's not a potato. It's kind of like a fetus.
 
Came to to thread expecting to make a fetus joke, turns out I beat myself to the punch to months ago.
 
sprinkles said:
When you cook a potato, and eat the potato, when does the potato stop being a potato?
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I'm Irish, sprinkles. We know everything there is to know about potatoes. We have libraries dedicated to just the potato. We have entire universities where people debate the nature of potatoes. We have a coliseum where people battle for the glory of the potato.

Do not talk to me about potatoes sprinkles; I will school you ass.
 
Jacobi said:
I'm Irish, sprinkles. We know everything there is to know about potatoes. We have libraries dedicated to just the potato. We have entire universities where people debate the nature of potatoes. We have a coliseum where people battle for the glory of the potato.

Do not talk to me about potatoes sprinkles; I will school you ass.
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Very well.

If you kill a snake, and bury the snake, when does it stop being a snake?
 
When ever you like it to be. The potato is no matter what you call it. Language and labels are all products of our imagination.


Possibly whenever you are able to convince others.
 
sprinkles said:
Very well.

If you kill a snake, and bury the snake, when does it stop being a snake?
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When did it start being a snake?

Ooh a question answered with a question. So enigmatic and vague.
 
sprinkles said:
Approximately an hour ago.
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So it's just been born? Does that mean it wasn't a snake in the mother's uterus? That would imply that there are certain restrictions on when a snake is a snake.
 
Jacobi said:
So it's just been born? Does that mean it wasn't a snake in the mother's uterus? That would imply that there are certain restrictions on when a snake is a snake.
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I haven't said otherwise. But even so, when does the fertilized egg become a snake?
 
sprinkles said:
I haven't said otherwise. But even so, when does the fertilized egg become a snake?
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Isn't a fertilized snake egg always a snake? What else could it be? To me, it's a snake egg, which is a variation of snake just as an adult snake is another.
 
sprinkles said:
I haven't said otherwise. But even so, when does the fertilized egg become a snake?
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A fertilized egg becomes a snake when it is no longer a fertilized egg. A snake stops being a snake when it is no longer a snake.

I studied philosophy at college and know that these types of questions have no answer unless you want there to be one. If you want a snake to stop being a snake at the moment of it's death then it is, for you anyway. Philosophers have spent millennium debating this exact topic. A lot of people bemoan it as a waste of time since there's no conclusions. Some scientists have even spurned philosophy as antiquated saying that science can offer real answers instead of pointless questions. What they fail to see is that such questions are not about the answer, but about the exploration of ideas. Topics which our threaten our view of reality are unsettling and can almost drive a person to the brink of insanity (they did for me) so I can understand why so many people reject them as nonsense.

You obviously know all this, so I'm not sure why I wrote that.
 
Jacobi said:
A fertilized egg becomes a snake when it is no longer a fertilized egg. A snake stops being a snake when it is no longer a snake.

I studied philosophy at college and know that these types of questions have no answer unless you want there to be one. If you want a snake to stop being a snake at the moment of it's death then it is, for you anyway. Philosophers have spent millennium debating this exact topic. A lot of people bemoan it as a waste of time since there's no conclusions. Some scientists have even spurned philosophy as antiquated saying that science can offer real answers instead of pointless questions. What they fail to see is that such questions are not about the answer, but about the exploration of ideas. Topics which our threaten our view of reality are unsettling and can almost drive a person to the brink of insanity (they did for me) so I can understand why so many people reject them as nonsense.

You obviously know all this, so I'm not sure why I wrote that.
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Not problematic for me. I'm perfectly fine with enigmas and unanswerable questions. I like them.
 
It stops becoming a potato when you eat it and it gets digested by your digestive system and pushed out through your rectum into the toilet. It also stops becoming a potato when it decomposes.


There, I solved the riddle. (and I am Irish too :P)
 
sprinkles said:
Very well.

If you kill a snake, and bury the snake, when does it stop being a snake?
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I think you've been looking at this wrong the whole time. Clearly it's always a snake, but it's a snake which changes its disposition over time.

First it's a snake embryo, then it's a juvenile snake, then it's a mature snake, before becoming a snake carcass, snake fossil, etc.. It stops being a snake of some form when anything which once would have positively identified it as a snake is gone, i.e. it has decomposed sufficiently as to be unidentifiable.

The same applies to almighty potato. It is potato when it satisfies all the conditions of being potato (is edible, is full of starch and delicious) and it ceases to be potato when it is no longer necessary for it to be potato (in stomach/trash (hahaha, good joke. no one throw away potato)).
 
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