The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments

Michael T. Stuart is a fellow of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, UK. Yiftach Fehige is Associate Professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto, Canada. James Robert Brown is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Contents










Thought Experiments: State of the Art – Michael T. Stuart, Yiftach Fehige and James Robert Brown






Part One: Selected History of Thought Experiments








The Triple Life of Ancient Thought Experiments – Katerina Ierodiakonou







Thought Experiments in Plato – Alexander Becker







Aristotle and Thought Experiments – Klaus Corcilius







Experimental Thoughts on Thought Experiments in Medieval Islam – Jon McGinnis







Galileo's Thought Experiments: Projective Participation and the Integration of Paradoxes – Paolo Palmieri







Thought Experiments in Newton and Leibniz – Richard T. W. Arthur







Kant, Hegel and Wittgenstein: Thought Experiments, Epistemology and Our Cognitive (In)Capacities – Kenneth R. Westphal






Part Two: Thought Experiments and their Fields








Thought Experiments in Political Philosophy – Nenad Miščević







Thought Experiments in Economics – Margaret Schabas







Theology and Thought Experiments – Yiftach Fehige







Thought Experiments in Ethics – George Brun







Happiest Thoughts: Great Thought Experiments of Modern Physics – Kent A. Peacock







Thought Experiments in Biology – Guillaume Schlaepfer and Marcel Weber







Thought Experiments in Mathematics – Irina Starikova and Marcus Giaquinto






Part Three: Contemporary Philosophical Approaches to Thought Experiments








The Argument View: Are Thought Experiments Mere Picturesque Arguments? – Elke Brendel







Platonism and the A Priori in Thought Experiments – Thomas Grundmann







Cognitive Science, Mental Modeling, and Thought Experiments – Nancy J. Nersessian







Kantian Accounts of Thought Experiments – Marco Buzzoni







Phenomenology and Thought Experiments: Thought Experiments as Anticipation Pumps – Harald A. Wiltsche






Part Four: Issues, Challenges and Interactions








Intuition and Its Critics – Stephen Stich and Kevin Tobia







Thought Experiments and Experimental Philosophy – Kirk Ludwig







Thought Experiments in Current Metaphilosophical Debates – Daniel Cohnitz and Sören Häggqvist







Historicism and Cross-Culture Comparison – James W. McAllister







A Dialectical Account of Thought Experiments – Jean-Yves Goffi and Sophie Roux







The Worst Thought Experiment – John D. Norton







Thought Experiments and Idealizations – Julian Reiss







Thought Experiments and Simulation Experiments: Exploring Hypothetical Worlds – Johannes Lenhard







Images and Imagination in Thought Experiments – Letitia Meynell