Thought experiment

Thought experiments are mental concepts or hypotheses, often resembling riddles, which are used by philosophers and scientists as simple ways of illuminating what are usually very dense ideas. Most often, they’re used in more abstract fields like philosophy and theoretical physics, where physical experiments aren’t possible. They serve as some hearty food for thought, but given their complex subject matter, it’s not unusual for even the thought experiment itself to be nearly…

We look at how to analyse these situations using moral philosophy, and then apply the results to some common options, like finance, law and the oil industry.

I am a philosopher with a background in art (which I studied as an undergraduate). Philosophers use thought experiments, short stories that bring out intuitions. It is often not possible to do these experiments in real life, but by doing them in our heads we can learn something new about the nature of reality, about right and wrong, the existence of God and many other topics.

From "Thompson's violinist" to the "Experience Machine," these thought experiments will throw your mind for a loop.

Psychology Facts

Milgram experiment, controversial series of experiments examining obedience to authority conducted by social psychologist Stanley Milgram.

Newcomb's Trolley Paradox 2 A trolley is hurtling down track 1 toward an opaque box. You are standing at a switch which will redirect the trolley onto track 2, where there is a man tied to the tracks inside a transparent glass box. Track 2 then reconnects to track 1 where it leads to the opaque box. You have heard about many other instances of this scenario, set up by an entity known only as 'the Predictor If the Predictor thinks that you will switch the trolley to track two it will leave…

Often, it feels like humans are one bunch of totally unpredictable beings. So finding out the answers to questions about our behavior requires some serious measures.