In Kasper Lippert‐Rasmussen, Kimberley Brownlee & David Coady (eds.),
A Companion to Applied Philosophy. Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 501–513 (
2016)
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Abstract
In the burgeoning literature on thought experiments, examples are drawn from almost all areas of philosophy, one exception, however, being aesthetics. There are good reasons why this is so: there are very few interesting theory-oriented thought experiments in aesthetics, which is unsurprising since there are few well-developed theories to test in this field. After evaluating some aesthetic thought experiments in light of some general epistemic questions regarding thought experiments, we argue that theory-centred thought experiments are not the only kinds of thought experiments, and that the practical and productive thought experiments that are prevalent in aesthetics are also worthy of some attention.