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Chapter 2 - How Thought Experiments Work

from Part I - The Origins of “Thought Experiment” in Kant and Ørsted

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2025

Eleanor Helms
Affiliation:
California Polytechnic State University
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Summary

This chapter further situates my Kantian account of thought experiments among competing views. I identify problems for contemporary accounts and contrast epistemological questions (How do thought experiments justify?), which guide most of the current scholarship, with Kant’s emphasis on cognition [Erkenntnis] (What makes concepts meaningful?). I note that metaphilosophical questions on the relationship between conceivability and possibility are not relevant for thought experiments if they are an apparatus for cognition, which is neutral toward the truth or actuality of the objects of cognition. Contemporary accounts that begin with Kuhn’s epistemological question differ on what the basis of knowledge might be. Leading approaches appeal to logic, stored knowledge, and intellectual intuition. I will briefly sketch here some of the basic approaches.

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Chapter
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Kierkegaard and the Structure of Imagination
Rethinking Thought Experiments with Kant and Ørsted
, pp. 35 - 46
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • How Thought Experiments Work
  • Eleanor Helms, California Polytechnic State University
  • Book: Kierkegaard and the Structure of Imagination
  • Online publication: 26 September 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009594929.005
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  • How Thought Experiments Work
  • Eleanor Helms, California Polytechnic State University
  • Book: Kierkegaard and the Structure of Imagination
  • Online publication: 26 September 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009594929.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • How Thought Experiments Work
  • Eleanor Helms, California Polytechnic State University
  • Book: Kierkegaard and the Structure of Imagination
  • Online publication: 26 September 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009594929.005
Available formats
×