Thought Experiments in Science and Philosophy
Published on 13. November 1991
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-8476-7706-1 (ISBN)
Description
Despite their centrality and importance to both science and philosophy, relatively little has been written about thought experiments. This volume brings together a series of extremely interesting studies of the history, mechanics, and applications of this important intellectual resource. A distinguished list of philosophers and scientists consider the role of thought experiments in their various disciplines, and argue that an examination of thought experimentation goes to the heart of both science and philosophy.
Reviews / Votes
...this book is full of interesting ideas presented with liveliness and experise. It is worth study by all who are concerned with TEs. -- James Cargile, University of VirginiaMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8476-7706-1 (9780847677061)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Tamara Horowitz is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Gerald Massey is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh
Content
Part 1 Thought experiments in the history of science and philosophy: thought experimentation in presocratic philosophy, Nicholas Rescher; mediaeval thought-experiments - the matemethodology of mediaeval science, Peter King; Descartes, conceivability and logical modality, Lilli Alanen. Part 2 Thought experiments in logic and mathematics: thought experiments and conceivability conditions, D.A. Anapolitanos; do all rational folk reason as we do? Frege's thought experiment reconsidered. Part 3 Thought experiments in the sciences: can thought experiments fail?, Allen I. Janis; thought experiments - a Platonic account, James Robert Brown; thought experiments in Einstein's work, John Norton; on the nature of though experiments in scientific reasoning, Andrew D. Irvine; thought experiments of Steven Mach and Gouy - thought experiments as ideal limits and as semantic domains, Ronald Laymon; reflections on strings, Mark Wilson; though experiments in the philosophy of physical science, Jorge Forge; Darwinian thought experiments - a function for just-so stories, James G. Lennox; thought experiments in linuistics, Sarah G. Thomason; method of imaginative variation in phenomenology, J.N. Mohanty; the tradition of thought experiments in epistemology, Rolf George; backdoor analyicity, Gerald Massey; on some pernicious thought-experiments, Richard M. Gale; Newcomb's problem as thought experiment, Tamara Horowitz; conceivability and modal knowledge, Stephen Cade Hetherington; the ballad of Clyde the moose, Joseph L. Camp, Jr.