Scientific thought experimentsespecially those in physicsare the clear. The first argues that thought experiments in philosophy and science should be treated together. I argue that it is not possible to make sense of the historical trajectory of certain thought experiments if one takes them to be arguments. The idea behind this conference was to encourage philosophers and scientists to talk to each other about the role of thought experiments in their various. The impossible barber and other bizarre thought experiments. How inventing riddles has revealed the flaws in our grasp of reality.
Thought experiments in science and philosophy philsciarchive. Philosophers who view all hypothetical reasoning as a form of thought experimentation regard the method as being as old as philosophy itself. Horowitz, tamara and massey, gerald 1991 thought experiments in science and philosophy. Pdf it is well established that thought experiments are both scientifically and. In his view, philosophy differs from science in degree, but not in kind. It serves as a model of how id like theorizing about thought experiments to go. Understanding the reasons behind using thought experiments, we should now understand that thought experiments can be relevant even if a situation is absurd and extremely unlikely to happen in reality. These thought experiments introduce students to the kind of disciplined thought required in philosophy, and awaken their intellectual curiosity.
Thought experiments what i call thought experiments is a smaller class than that which usually goes under that name in the literature. Philosophers use thought experiments, short stories that bring out intuitions. Sorensen explores what thought experiments are, how they work, and what their virtues and vices are. Collected thought experiments in philosophy is a brief collection of over 100 classic and contemporary thought experiments, each exploring an important philosophical argument. International studies in the philosophy of science, 11, 115. Their structure and function1 lukas bielik department of logic and methodology of sciences faculty of philosophy comenius university in bratislava project apvv 014912 1. Platonism in the philosophy of mathematics, though a minority. Nov 09, 2017 hope you enjoyed this philosophy video and hope this made you consider taking a philosophy class next semester. In law, the synonym hypothetical is frequently used for such experiments. Success here will radiate to my secondary goal of understanding philosophical thought experiments.
And relative to that goal many thought experiments in science are just as unreliable. May 11, 2016 the impossible barber and other bizarre thought experiments. Thought experiments from a kantian point of view marco buzzoni 6. Thought experiments and the belief in phenomena philosophy. Featuring numerous updates and enhancements, science fiction and philosophy, 2nd edition, presents a collection of readings that utilize concepts developed from science fiction to explore a variety of classic and contemporary philosophical issues. The paper addresses the question of the nature and limits of philosophical thought experiments. Thought experiments in science, philosophy, and the arts. Others maintain that truly informative thought experiments are found only in mathematics and the natural sciences. Thought experiments in science and philosophy philsci. Thought experiments crucial considerations a science.
In this website, we present a rough synthesis of some new and some old ideas from the philosophy of science. The philosophy of science is a field that deals with what science is, how it works, and the logic through which we build scientific knowledge. Why, what and how till gruneyanoff royal institute of technology kth, stockholm finnish centre of excellence in the philosophy of the social sciences, helsinki tint forthcoming in european journal for philosophy of science. Presenting the first general theory of thought experiment, he sets it within an evolutionary framework and integrates recent advances in experimental psychology and the history of science, with special emphasis on ernst mach and thomas kuhn.
These include the thesis that science aims at uncovering phenomenauniversal and stable modes in which the world is articulatedand the thesis that phenomena are revealed imperfectly in actual occurrences. The darwinian demon is a hypothetical organism which can simultaneously maximize all aspects of its fitness. This is to be expected whenever scientists disagree about a. On thought experiments as a priori science article pdf available in international studies in the philosophy of science 3. Thought experiments routledge encyclopedia of philosophy. If a tree falls in the forest, but no one hears it, does it make a sound. Examplesofthoughtexperiments inscience andphilosophy. Whatever thought experiments really are, they have been instrumental in the progress of both philosophy and science, and they constitute a powerful tool for understanding the world. Thought experiments cooper 2005 metaphilosophy wiley. Only on these platonically inspired assumptions does it make sense to bypass.
I am a philosopher with a background in art which i studied as an undergraduate. Introduction to thought experiments in science and philosophy. The ancient greek deiknymi, or thought experiment, was the most ancient pattern of mathematical proof, and existed before euclidean mathematics, where the emphasis was on the conceptual, rather than on the experimental part of a thoughtexperiment perhaps the key experiment in the history of modern science is galileos demonstration that falling objects must. If youre interested in reading more about utilitarianism.
On the one hand, experimental philosophers are right to claim that we need much more laboratory work in order to have more reliable thought experiments, but on the other hand a naturalism that is too radical is incapable of clarifying the peculiarity of thought experiments in philosophy. Uses science fiction to address a series of classic and contemporary philosophical issues, including many raised by recent scientific developments. In rebuttal, john norton argues that thought experiments can be understood in empiricist terms, and calls for a more thorough analysis of the epistemology of thought experiments. A thought experiment is an experiment that takes place in the mind of a scientist. In order to figure out when this is the case, we can use cleverly constructed thought experiments to push the edges of our moral beliefs. Are these experiments, conducted uniquely in our imagination, simply rhetorical dev. From lucretius throwing a spear beyond the boundary of the universe to einstein racing against a beam of light, thought experiments stand as a fascinating challenge to the necessity of data in the empirical sciences. The second examines existing accounts of thought experiments and shows why they are inadequate.
Einstein and bohr disagreed about the outcome of the clockinthebox thought experiment, and so they reconstructed it using different arguments. But in fact thought experiments in science play a varied role and i will suggest that knowledge production is a goal only under quite limited circumstances. A critical discussion of the early rival accounts of thought experiments. It is often not possible to do these experiments in real life, but by doing them in our heads we can learn something new about the nature of reality, about right and wrong, the existence of god and many other topics. This text with readings helps students understand the nature and pu. Rosenberg offers a superb introduction to the epistemological and metaphysical issues at stake in modern science. Naomi picked it up and couldnt help but notice the small white rabbits foot dangling fromit.
Why thought experiments are not arguments philosophy of. Jan 08, 2016 susan schneider is a philosophy professor at the university of connecticut and a fellow with the american council of learned societies. Iv analytic philosophys commitment to thought experiment, 15. Thought experiment acquires evidential significance only on particular metaphysical assumptions. Thought experiments have been used in philosophy especially ethics, physics, and other fields such as cognitive psychology, history, political science, economics, social psychology, law, organizational studies, marketing, and epidemiology. The routledge companion to philosophy of science is an indispensable reference source and guide to the major themes, debates, problems and topics in philosophy of science. Thought experiments in the history of philosophy of. Is this really the case, and if so, why might that be. This semester, we will engage our brains by tackling the following big questions. The body, thought experiments, and phenomenology yiftach fehige and harald wiltsche 5. Scientific thought experiments especially those in physicsare the clear cases, so my primary goal is to establish true and interesting generalizations about them. If the ship of theseus has its components replaced throughout its journey, does it at any point become a different ship. This article seeks to explain how thought experiments work, and also the reasons why they can fail.
Many of the items on this list we cherish as valuable tools for philosophical instruction, and with good reason. Thought experiments in science, philosophy and the arts pp. Philosophy offers numerous examples of thought experiments that play a role similar in importance to some scientific thought experiments. In it, he employs a demon with special metaphysical knowledge as an agent for forcing reevaluation of perspective on ones own life. Thought experiments philosophy oxford bibliographies. While philosophical and scientific thought experiments have stolen most. Unlike with a reallife experiment where change is actually seen and perhaps measured, thought experiments are done just to show a special way of thinking. Thought experiments used in physics are the experiments that do not need to be done, in actual fact, but designed to reveal the essence of the problem and they are thought to find out the results. Thought experiments in philosophy, science and the arts by. Scientific thought experimentsespecially those in physicsare the clear cases, so my primary goal is to establish true and interesting generalizations about them. Looking at the development of the discussion about thought experiments over the past thirty years, it is fair to say that thought experiments were primarily an important topic in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of philosophy metaphilosophy, before the scope widened up at a later point. This volume originated in a conference on the place of thought experiments in science and philosophy which was organized by us and held at the center for philosophy of science at the university of pittsburgh, april 1820, 1986.
True, sometimes they dont work, but the same can be said for physical experiments. Thought experiments stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Nov 26, 2016 the paper addresses the question of the nature and limits of philosophical thought experiments. Einstein and bohr disagreed about the outcome of the clock in thebox thought experiment, and so they reconstructed it using different arguments. Especially concerned with the relation between thought experiments and modal notions necessity and possibility. By my stipulation, thought experiments have four characteristics that distinguish them from intuition pumps. Philosophers writing on thought experiments divide into two camps. Thought experiment simple english wikipedia, the free. Thought experiment and the exercise of imagination in science james w. Contents click on titles for links to individual pdfs preface. All you need is your mind because all the steps take place in your mind. Thought experiments in the history of philosophy of science. Thought experiments and intuition pumps in philosophy.
Introduction1 section 1 thought experiments in the history of science and philosophy. Collectively, the contributions in the last section discuss how thought experiments in biology, economics and political philosophy differ from those in physics, whether some works of literature and film can be properly understood as thought experiments, and whether computational models are supplanting thought experiments. My research focuses on creativity, innovation and conceptual change in science. I defend the view that these circumstances can sometimes arise in philosophy as well. Hope you enjoyed this philosophy video and hope this made you consider taking a philosophy class next semester. Pdf introduction to thought experiments in science and. It contains sixtytwo specially commissioned entries by a leading team of international contributors. Think of gettierstyle cases when you read this thought experiment. Nersessian, professor of cognitive science at the georgia institute of technology. Department of philosophy and religious studies, concordia. Contents click on titles for links to individual pdfs. For this reason, he claims, it is possible to understand philosophical thought experiments by concentrating on their resemblance to scientific relatives.
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