Locke's Socks

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Locke's Socks is a philosophical conundrum thought to have been initially proposed by John Locke, about the nature of identity.

Locke proposes a scenario involving a favorite sock that develops a hole. After a patch is applied to the sock, is it still the same sock? If it is, then, is it still the same sock after a second patch is applied? Is it still the same sock many years later, after all of the material of the original sock has been replaced with patches? What is the inherent nature of the sock's sockiness, if not its material?

Locke's proposal is similar in nature to a statement ascribed to Heraclitus in the 5th century B.C., that "no man crosses the same river twice, for both the man has changed and the river has changed."