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Why Thought Experiments Are Not Arguments | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core

  • ️Thu Mar 13 2025

Abstract

Are thought experiments nothing but arguments? I argue that it is not possible to make sense of the historical trajectory of certain thought experiments if one takes them to be arguments. Einstein and Bohr disagreed about the outcome of the clock-in-the-box thought experiment, and so they reconstructed it using different arguments. This is to be expected whenever scientists disagree about a thought experiment's outcome. Since any such episode consists of two arguments but just one thought experiment, the thought experiment cannot be the arguments.

Type

Research Article

Copyright

Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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