Thought Experiments in Methodological and Historical Contexts

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-20176-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 19/15, 233 Seiten, Format (B × H): 1600 mm x 2400 mm, Gewicht: 517 g

Reihe: History of Science and Medicine Library / Medieval and Early Modern Science

During the last decades of the twentieth century highly imaginative thought experiments were introduced in philosophy: Searle’s Chinese room, variations on the Brain-in-a-vat, Thomson’s violinist. At the same time historians of philosophy and science claimed the title of thought experiment for almost any argument: Descartes’ evil genius, Buridan’s ass, Gyges’ ring. In the early 1990s a systematic debate began concerning the epistemological status of thought experiments. The essays in this volume are an outcome of this debate. They were guided by the idea that, since we cannot forge a strict definition of thought experiments, we should at least tame the contemporary wild usage of this notion by analysing thought experiments from various periods, and thus clarify how they work, what their limits are, and what their conceptualisation could be.

Zielgruppe

All those interested in history and philosophy of science, epistemology and philosophy of mind.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ierodiakonou, Katerina

Roux, Sophie

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Allgemeines, Methoden
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Emergence of the Notion of Thought Experiments, Sophie Roux

PART ONE: HISTORICAL USES OF THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

Remarks on the History of an Ancient Thought Experiment, Katerina Ierodiakonou
Thought Experiments in the De Anima Commentaries, Peter Lautner
Thought Experiments in Late Medieval Debates on Atomism, Christophe Grellard

PART TWO: THE POSSIBILITY OF THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

Thought Experiments and Indirect Proofs in Averroes, Aquinas, and Buridan, Simo Knuuttila and Taneli Kukkonen
Galileo’s Use of Medieval Thought Experiments, Carla Rita Palmerino
On Kant’s Critique of Thought Experiments in Early Modern Philosophy, Stelios Virvidakis

PART THREE: HOW DO THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS WORK?

Philosophical Thought Experiments: In or Out of the Armchair?, Pascal Engel
On the Very Idea of a Thought Experiment, Jean-Yves Goffi and Sophie Roux
Thought Experiments and Mental Simulations, John Zeimbekis

Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index nominum

Über Autor(innen)

Ierodiakonou, Katerina
Katerina Ierodiakonou is Associate Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Athens. She has published extensively on ancient and Byzantine philosophy, especially in the areas of epistemology and logic. She currently works on a book about ancient theories of colour.

Roux, Sophie
Sophie Roux (Ph.D., EHESS, 1996) is Associate Professor at the University of Grenoble and Junior Fellow at the Institut universitaire de France. She has published extensively on various aspects of philosophy and science in the early modern period.