Thought experiments /
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| Author / Creator: | Sorensen, Roy A. |
|---|---|
| Imprint: | Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998, c1992. |
| Description: | xii, 320 p. : ill. |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Oxford scholarship online. |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | E-Resource Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6109173 |
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- 1.. Our Most Curious Device
- I. The Instrument of Choice
- II. Scientific Thought Experiments
- III. The Bridge to Philosophical Thought Experiments
- IV. Analytic Philosophy's Commitment to Thought Experiment
- 2.. Scepticism About Thought Experiments
- I. Introspection on the Sly?
- A.. The Internal Horizon
- B.. Complaints About Introspection
- C.. The Parallel Plight of Thought Experiments
- II. A Repackaged Appeal to Ordinary Language?
- A.. How the Appeal to Ordinary Language Is Supposed to Work
- B.. Strong Scepticism About the Appeal to Ordinary Language
- C.. Moderate Scepticism About the Appeal to Ordinary Language
- D.. Semantic Descent to Thought Experiments
- III. Thought Experiments and the Dilemma of Informativeness
- 3.. Mach and Inner Cognitive Africa
- I. Instinctive Knowledge
- II. The Continuum of Cognitive Bargain Hunters
- III. Mach's Response to the Problem of Informativeness
- IV. Appraisal of Mach
- A.. What Mach Got Right
- B.. What Mach Got Wrong
- 4.. The Wonder of Armchair Inquiry
- I. The Pseudoanomaly
- A.. Modal Gap Illusions
- B.. How Thought Experiments Yield Modal Conclusions
- II. Positive Theories of Armchair Inquiry
- A.. The Recollection Model
- B.. The Transformation Model
- C.. The Homuncular Model
- D.. The Rearrangement Model
- III. The Cleansing Model
- A.. How Thought Experiment Corrects Imbalances
- B.. Theoretical and Practical Irrationality
- IV. An Eclectic View of the Mechanics of Thought Experiment
- 5.. Kuhntradictions
- I. Kuhn on the Received Opinion
- II. Misfits
- III. The Left Hand of Logic
- IV. Truth or Dare?
- A.. The Incoherence of Incoherent Concepts
- B.. Violation of Logical Conservatism
- V. Reconstruction of Kuhn's Error
- A.. The Guts of Paradox
- B.. Conflationary Factors
- C.. The Phenomenology of Inconsistency
- D.. Counteranalysis of Kuhn's Cases
- E.. Taxonomic Prospects
- 6.. The Logical Structure of Thought Experiment
- I. Attributing Thought Experiments
- II. Thought Experiments as Alethic Refuters
- A.. Necessity Refuters
- B.. The Five Responses to the Quintet
- C.. Summary of Necessity Refuters
- D.. Possibility Refuters
- E.. Summary of Possibility Refuters
- III. The Identity Conditions for Thought Experiments
- IV. An Extension to Ordinary Experiments
- V. The Big Picture
- 7.. Conflict Vagueness and Precisification
- I. General Features of Vagueness
- II. Dueling Definitions
- A.. The Psychology of Conflict Vagueness
- B.. How Conflict Vagueness Creates the Mirage of Local Incoherence
- C.. Extensional Conflict Vagueness
- D.. Intensional Conflict Vagueness
- III. Application of the Quintet Schema
- IV. Conceptual Reform
- V. Eliminative Reactions to Conflict Vagueness
- VI. Tolerating the Vagueness
- VII. Extending the Analysis
- VIII. Sunder, Enlighten!
- 8.. The Evolution of Thought Experiment
- I. 'Experiment' Defined
- A.. Stereotypical Features of Experiment
- B.. A Cognitive Aim Is Essential to Experiment
- II. Execution Is an Optional Part of Experiment
- III. The Progression from Experiment to Thought Experiment
- IV. Classifying Thought Experiments by Grounds for Inaction
- A.. Unimprovables
- B.. Unaffordables
- C.. Impossibles
- V. The Immigration of the Supposition Operator
- VI. A Definition of 'Thought Experiment'
- A.. The Selectivity of the Definition
- B.. Stereotypical Features of Thought Experiments
- VII. Verbal Disputes over 'Thought Experiment'
- VIII. Five Theses Recapitulated
- 9.. Are Thought Experiments Experiments?
- I. Systematically Misleading Expressions
- II. Comparisons with Lookalikes
- A.. Imaginary Experiments
- B.. Fictional Experiments
- C.. Mythical Experiments
- D.. Models, Simulations, Reenactments
- III. The Analogy with Ordinary Experiments
- A.. The Taxonomic Point of the Analogy
- B.. Points of Resemblance
- C.. Points of Difference
- D.. Bogus Points of Difference
- IV. A Lopsided Tally
- 10.. Fallacies and Antifallacies
- I. The Biological Baseline
- II. Myths and Abuses
- III. Fallacious Thought Experiments
- A.. Missupposition
- B.. Perspectival Illusions
- C.. Framing Effects
- D.. Biases of Thought Experiment
- E.. Jumping the If/Ought Gap
- F.. Overweighting Negative Thought Experiments
- G.. The Additive Fallacy
- H.. The Blindspot Fallacy
- IV. Antifallacies
- A.. General Characterization of Antifallacies
- B.. The Far Out Antifallacy
- C.. Strangeness In, Strangeness Out?
- D.. The Voyeur Antifallacy
- E.. The Kabuki Antifallacy
- V. A Parting Comparison
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Subject Index
- Name Index