Thought Experiments

A thought about thought experiments...

A thought experiment is where you try to construct a hypothetical situation, and then work through the implications of that to test an intuition or hypothesis to see what the logical conclusion is.

Since many things that are dealt with philosophically are hard to test directly, it is useful to construct 'what if' cases and then tease out the implications.

As such thought experiments can help us to build and examine and re-construct our arguments and move debates forward.

For instance, you might think that there is one thing that we know for certain - that we exist as does the world around us.

However there is a classic thought experiment, the brain in a vat, that shows we can never know this for certain. It is perfectly possible that this is exactly what you are, a brain floating in a solution of some sort with scientists feeding you a very consistent set of inputs through your life, but nonetheless everything you think is really there is not and is just a product of the environment you are in.

As disconcerting as it is, when you ask 'how would I know if I was a brain in a box?' or rather 'if I was a brain in a box, would I be able to tell that's what I was?' and realise that the answer is no, you wouldn't be able to tell, then you realise just how little we really know.

There are thousands of thought experiments from simple ones to the really elaborate, and most of them serve a useful purpose in increasing our knowledge or understanding of a subject or helping to solve certain problems.

If you are interested in thought experiments, there are some excellent books out there that show classic thought experiments in both philosophical areas and other areas.

Popular areas are with regard things like time travel, with many hypothetical cases and stories created. We can then use these to see if we have got our intuitions right or created contradictions.

Of course thought experiments don't always give a clear cut answer. For instance many people think we can construct a coherent story or thought experiment whereby you travel to the past, whilst others think this always entails logical contradictions and therefore shows that time travel to the past is not possible - so the debate will rage on.

If you have any favourite thought experiments that you'd like to share or any questions about particular thought experiments, then send me a message through my profile and I'll add them to this page!

Thought Experiments

Author: Stephen

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Last Updated: Oct 18th 2006

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