Walter sinnottarmstrong, saul smilansky, and roy sorensen. Each of us is thoroughly acquainted with all of the extant arguments, thought experiments, and intuition pumps that the literature has to offer. A general and less specialized discussion of thought experiments, includes several historically famous examples. The thought experiment operator or inference, may be equivalent to the psychological faculty of intuition according to many thought experiment philosophers such as ernst mach, thomas kuhn, daniel dennett, tamar gendler, john norton, roy sorensen. First, philosophers often use thought experiments, especially in ethics and the philosophy of mind, and an understanding of how. Oxford university press, 1992, and thought experiments and the epistemology of laws, canadian journal of philosophy 22 1992 lw, j. Sorensen and wilkes write about thought experiments in all areas although wilkes is skeptical about the value of thought experiments in philosophy. Pdf this is the introduction for the routledge companion to thought experiments. I would like to take roy sorensens remarks as an example. Thought experiments thought experiments cooper, rachel 20050401 00. Theories of thought experiments there are many more interesting pieces of thought experiments found both, in science and philosophy see, e. A year later, roy sorensen published his thought experiments, a detailed tenchapter discus sion of thought experiments in philosophy and science, in which he defends their con tinuity with physical experiment, and adduces numerous arguments in favor of. Sorensen that thought experiments in science and philosophy are of a kind.
Instead of following the supposition wherever it leads, they avoid unsettling implications. Nonphysical visual objects generated by colour spreading are expected to cast shadows with roberto casati perception, 2012, volume 41, pages 1275 1276. Sorensen presents a general theory of thought experiments. Beyond this metaphor it is difficult to say just what these remarkable devices for investigating nature are or how they work. Sorensen wants to offer a general account of thought experiments both in science. Sorensen can merely thinking about an imaginary situation provide evidence for how the world actually isor how it ought to be. Thought experiment and the exercise of imagination in science james w. Blindspots, thought experiments, pseudoproblems, vagueness and contradiction, seeing dark things, and a cabinet of philosophical curiosities. Horowitz t massey g eds 1996 thought experiments in. Sorensen and wilkes write about thought experiments in all areas. Can merely thinking about an imaginary situation provide evidence for how the world actually isor how it ought to be. Anecdotes and thought experiments in zhuangzi and western. Thought experiments from a kantian point of view marco buzzoni 6. In this book, roy sorensen presents the first general theory of the thought experiment.
However, they are flustered by thought experiments that support repugnant conclusions. Sorensen addresses this question with an analysis of a wide variety of thought experiments ranging from aesthetics to zoology. The evidential significance of thought experiment in. Acknowledg ments this book has indebted me to many people. Roy sorensen is a professor of philosophy at washington university in st. A year later, roy sorensen published his thought experiments, a detailed tenchapter discus. Explores the distinctions between thought experiments and real experiments. The essays are naturally short but sweet, wideranging, mostly well referenced, and serve. Roy sorensen sets out to resolve this anomaly and to show how the causal theory solves a broad range of visual puzzles about dark things.
The basis of my claim is a topological thought experiment. Roy sorensen, and ernest sosa for helpful conversations on the topic. Although he grants that there are interesting ways in which the method leads us astray, he attacks most scepticism about thought experiments as arbitrary. A companion to the philosophy of science wiley online books. The body, thought experiments, and phenomenology yiftach fehige and harald wiltsche 5. One line of response to this work has been to claim that philosophers have expertise that privileges their intuitive judgments, and allows them to. A spherical white cavity begins to grow from the centre.
Philosophers should be interested in this project for two reasons. While philosophical and scientific thought experiments have stolen most of. Roy sorensen defines paradoxes as conflicting, wellcredentialed answers to problems 2011, and elsewhere as. In his view, philosophy differs from science in degree, but not in kind. Visualize a vague grey sphere that fades into a white background. Sorensen explores what thought experiments are, how they work, and what their virtues and vices are. Published in 2005 precis and replies in a book symposium of vagueness and contradiction for philosophy and. Thought experiments at least in some cases allow us to intuit laws of nature.
This paper will attempt to show that the doppler principle was of major relevance to einstein for the genesis of the special theory of relativity. Both kathleen wilkes 1988 and roy sorensen 1992 think that thought experiments are a source of knowledge in sci ence. Scientific thought experiments especially those in physicsare the clear cases, so my primary goal is to establish true and interesting generalizations about them. Roy sorensen never told you that he is the son of ted sorensen, president kennedys speech writer and confidant. After all, an absence of light cannot reflect light into our eyes. Presenting the first general theory of thought experiment, he sets it within an evolutionary can merely thinking about an imaginary situation provide evidence for how the world actually is. Scientists also use thought experiments when particular physical experiments are impossible to conduct carl gustav hempel labeled these sorts of experiment theoretical experiments inimagination, such as einsteins thought experiment of chasing a light beam, leading to special relativity. Though most scientists and philosophers would admit their great importance, there has been very little serious study of them. But i will argue that this notion of unreliability has to be understood relative to the goal of thought experiments as knowl edge producing.
Roy sorensen, dartmouth college this is an important reference work in the area. Roy sorensen never told you that he is the son of ted sorensen, president kennedy\\s speech writer and confidant. Thought experiments are performed in the laboratory of the mind. Veridical idealizations in thought experiments in science, philosophy, and the arts edited by melanie frappier, letitia. Wilkes thinks the disanalogies between science and philosophy can be used to explain. Bunzl 1996 bunzl 1996 argues for a limited version of scepticism aimed at showing that the goal of thought experiments is to.
Lessons learned about scientific experimentation carry over to thought experiment, and vice versa. Sorensen and soren haggqvist resort to modal logic to differentiate different types. Notes 1 brown, gooding, kuhn, mach, mcallister, nersessian and norton concern themselves with thought experiments in science. Epistemicism and roy sorensen arguments 211 must have boundaries. He analyses a wide variety of thought experiments, ranging from aesthetics to zoology, and explores what thought experiments are, how they work, and what their positive and negative aspects are. Thought experiments philosophy oxford bibliographies. Michael slote university of maryland thought experiments is a timely, lively book with a great deal to say about an important topic. Seeing dark things the philosophy of shadows roy sorensen. Metaconceivability and thought experiments the architecture of the imagination ed. For this reason, he claims, it is possible to understand philosophical thought experiments by concentrating on their resemblance to scientific relatives. Sorensen also assesses the hazards and pseudohazards of thought experiments. Although there is no completely unanimous answer to this question, almost all authors involved in the debate on thought experiments agree that to perform a thought experiment is to reason about an imaginary scenario with the aim of. Sorensenthought experiments oxford university press 1998.
Recent work in experimental philosophy has brought to bear the intuitions of philosophically naive subjects in a number of different ways. Rethinking thought experiments sorensen offers an alternative account of the role that laws play in thought experiments. Because they do not involve the senses, they transcend experience, and give us a priori knowledge of the laws of nature. Sorensen has offered an aspiring version of experimentalism that accounts for thought experiments in science and philosophy, and tackles many of the central issues of the topic.
Though most scientists and philosophers would admit their great importance. Prior to joining the ut austin faculty in 2019, he taught at university of delaware, new york university, dartmouth college, and washington university in st. Dumbfounders have general competence at thought experiment in contrast to people who lack formal education. Thought experiments in science, philosophy, and the arts. 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. Success here will radiate to my secondary goal of understanding philosophical thought experiments.
His speech has already been studied by many researchers, however the. The evidential significance of thought experiment in science. Shadows appear to be counterexamples to the causal theory of perception. Smartfounding is the opposite of dumbfounding introduced by jonathan haidts research on disgust. Buenos aires sorensen, roy 1992 thought experiments. Sorensen claims thought experiments are a subset of unexecuted experiments 1992, p. Apr 01, 2005 for this reason an account of thought experimentation 1 brown, gooding, kuhn, mach, mcallister, nersessian, and norton concern themselves with thought experiments in science. For this purpose, i focus primarily on einsteins speech how i created the theory of relativity 1922 and his work on the electrodynamics of moving bodies 1905.
Some science is too big, dangerous, or weird to happen in the lab. On the hidden thought experiments of economic theory. It is a commonplace that in philosophy, intuitions supply evidence for and against philosophical theories. Shaun nichols oxford university press, 2006 257272. Thought experiments stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Intuitions, remember, are nonsensory perceptions of abstract entities. Find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate.
Thought experiments are basically devices of the imagination. Peer disagreement and higher order evidence1 thomas kelly princeton university 1. Other critics of thought experiment are free to criticize the scientists and. On sorensen s view, philosophy differs from science in degree, but not in kind. Sorensen 1992a sets out a set theoretic conception of thought experiments that also imposes stringent identity conditions on thoughts. Galileos free fall and inclined plane, einsteins elevator, newtons bucket etc.
On sorensens view, philosophy differs from science in degree, but not in kind. He writes, the laws of nature have led us to develop rough and ready intuitions of physical possibility which are then exploited by thought experimenters to reveal some of the very laws responsible for those intuitions. Instead of following the supposition wherever it leads, they avoid unsettling implications by. But, with wilkes, i will argue that at least many philosophical thought experiments are unreliable. Over the past thirty years the philosophical vocabulary has consolidated the use of a new expression.
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