Thought Experiments – Sketch of a Theory

Abstract

Thought-experiments are highly controlled exercises of imagination with a precise cognitive purpose; they thus belong to a wide genus of “imaginative enactments in thought”, reaching from imagining with some immediate practical purpose all the way to imagining in meditations. The concreteness, i.e. image-involvedness of such enactments enhances their efficiency and usefulness. The crucial role in the mechanics of thought-experiments is played by specialized competences that both crucially help model the imaginary scenarios, and derive the resulting judgmentsintuitions. I call the resulting view “Moderate voice of competence (MoVoC)” view. Finally, since some competences are deep and probably innate, other linked more to exploiting empirical sources the overall justification combines a priori and a posteriori elements, in a highly structured way.