Original scientific paper
‘Mais la fantaisie est-elle un privilège des seuls poètes?’ Schlick on a ‘Sinnkriterium’ for Thought Experiments
Daniel Dohrn
; Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Ever since the term ‘thought experiment’ was coined by Ørsted, philosophers
have struggled with the question of how thought experiments
manage to provide knowledge. Ernst Mach’s seminal contribution has
eclipsed other approaches in the Austrian tradition. I discuss one of
these neglected approaches. Faced with the challenge of how to reconcile
his empiricist position with his use of thought experiments, Moritz
Schlick proposed the following ‘Sinnkriterium’: a thought experiment is
meaningful if it allows to answer a question under discussion by imagining
the experiences that would confi rm that the thought experimental
scenario is actual. I trace this view throughout three exemplary thought
experiments of Schlick’s.
Keywords
Thought experiment; Schlick; imagination; counterfactual; empiricism; verificationism.
Hrčak ID:
253506
URI
Publication date:
10.5.2018.
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