from Part I - The Origins of “Thought Experiment” in Kant and Ørsted
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2025
Rationalist accounts of thought experiment in epistemology offer an alternative to the more predominantly empiricist approaches in philosophy of science. In this chapter, I will pose a Kantian critique of recent rationalist accounts of intellectual intuition. Some epistemologists have recently argued that intellectual intuitions can provide prima facie justification for judgments. In this chapter, I highlight some promising elements of recent rationalist accounts, especially the proposal that there can be nonsensory presentations analogous to empirical perceptions. If they are right, then thought experiments can provide new experiential content even without empirical confirmation. However, I also draw attention to Kant’s objections to the possibility of purely intellectual intuitions.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
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 Dropbox.
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.