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Thought Experiments in Philosophy

Summary/Abstract: It is not surprising for us that thought experiments are so popular among philosophers and among readers of some philosophical journals. As we showed in our paper — they are either would-be real experiments or stimulators of revealing convictions and opinions of people on which experiments are prosecuted. Besides the fact that thought experiments fulfill an illustrative and a fortiori persuasive function, they do not play any important theoretical role. They are simply exemplifications — usually inventive and funny ones — of some «pure» processes of reasoning. Their popularity has its source in the fact that since their childhood people like reading books with… illustrations. There would be nothing wrong with making use of such illustrations if texts in which they are described contained clearly expressed theses and transparently presented argumentation. Unfortunately — texts illustrated by thought experiments are lacking of such clarity and transparency. This is probably the reason for the fact that texts containing thought experiments are so widely commented. It is a very known truth that the less clear and transparent the text is, the more interpretative comments it needs. And in comments, there appear — instead of clearly formulated theses and transparently presented argumentation — new thought experiments…

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