Thought experiments rethought—and reperceived

Philosophy of Science 71 (5):1152-1163 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Contemplating imaginary scenarios that evoke certain sorts of quasi‐sensory intuitions may bring us to new beliefs about contingent features of the natural world. These beliefs may be produced quasi‐observationally; the presence of a mental image may play a crucial cognitive role in the formation of the belief in question. And this albeit fallible quasi‐observational belief‐forming mechanism may, in certain contexts, be sufficiently reliable to count as a source of justification. This sheds light on the central puzzle surrounding scientific thought experiment, which is how contemplation of an imaginary scenario can lead to new knowledge about contingent features of the natural world.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 84,179

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Personal identity and thought-experiments.Tamar Szabó Gendler - 2002 - Philosophical Quarterly 52 (206):34-54.
When are thought experiments poor ones?Jeanne Peijnenburg & David Atkinson - 2003 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 34 (2):305-322.
Philosophical thought experiments, intuitions, and cognitive equilibrium.Tamar Szabó Gendler - 2007 - In Peter A. French & Howard K. Wettstein (eds.), Philosophy and the Empirical. Blackwell. pp. 68-89.
Galileo and the indispensability of scientific thought experiment.Tamar Szabó Gendler - 1998 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (3):397-424.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
412 (#34,047)

6 months
17 (#89,201)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Tamar Gendler
Yale University

Citations of this work

Imagination.Shen-yi Liao & Tamar Gendler - 2019 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Imagination Through Knowledge.Shannon Spaulding - 2016 - In Amy Kind & Peter Kung (eds.), Knowledge Through Imagination. Oxford University Press. pp. 207-226.
Imagination.Tamar Szabó Gendler - 2011 - In Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University.

View all 55 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

On thought experiments: Is there more to the argument?John D. Norton - 2004 - Philosophy of Science 71 (5):1139-1151.
The Science of Mechanics.E. B. T., E. Mach & T. J. McCormack - 1894 - Philosophical Review 3 (1):123.
On Thought Experiments: Is There More to the Argument?John D. Norton - 2004 - Philosophy of Science 71 (5):1139-1151.
Thought Experiments in Science and Philosophy. [REVIEW]James Cargile - 1994 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54 (2):479-482.
Thought experiments and the belief in phenomena.James W. McAllister - 2004 - Philosophy of Science 71 (5):1164-1175.

View all 6 references / Add more references