What If?: Thought Experimentation in Philosophy

by Nicholas Rescher (Editor)

Overview

Thought experimentation has been a staple of philosophical methodology since classical antiquity, when Xenophanes of Colophon speculated that if horses had gods, they would be equine in form

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138517851
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/12/2017
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1: Thought Experimentation; 2: Thought Experimentation in Science and History; 3: Thought Experimentation in Philosophy; 4: Thought Experimentation in Pre-Socratic Philosophy; 5: Some Classic Philosophical Thought Experiments; 6: Aporetics and Cost-Benefit Analysis in Philosophical Thought Experimentation; 7: Issues of Speculative Ontology; 8: Philosophically Instructive Paradoxes; 9: Outlandish Hypotheses and the Limits of Thought Experimentation; 10: On Overdoing Thought Experimentation

Editorial Reviews

"Rescher's book is to be commended for dealing with a broad topic that will be of interest to philosophers and historians of science alike."
—-Mark Shumelda, ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society

From the Publisher