What is a Thought Experiment? - Exploring the Concept and Examples

Running head: PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PHILOSOPHY
1. What is a thought experiment? Give or design an example of a thought experiment you
can use or have used in your own life. Be sure to follow your experiment through to "the
end."
Answer: Thought Experiments are tests where one imagines the real-life outcome of a
hypothesis in a situation where physical evidence may not be available. They are used in
various fields, like, economics, mathematic, philosophy, history and fields of science such as
physics. These are psychological experiments of thought. The concept of thought
experiments is generally associated with the renowned physicist named Ernst mach and his
notion of ‘Gedankenexperiment’ (Gendler, 2014).
Thought experiments have played a significant role in the history of physics. Two great
figures who have delved in thought experiments are Galileo and Einstein. The most
celebrated thoughts experiments are of Galileo, now known as Galilean Relativity. Einstein
followed the same path when he came up with the general theory of relativity and principle
of equivalence (Brown, 2013).
An experiment that was written by the famous Utilitarian thinker Peter Singer in 2009,
asks the question if we were to be walking down a street and see a drowning child, we would
not think twice to answer that we would save the child even if it means destroying a good
pair of leather shoes. However, after we answer this, the next question that rises is the
difference between saving the child in front of us and another across the world. According to
Singer, there is no difference in morals when it comes to saving both children. The cost of
the shoes is analogous to the cost of donation, and if one is irrelevant, the other should be
too. There are counter arguments that rely on the idea that the former is a state of emergency