On thought experiments as a priori science
On thought experiments as a priori science
复制标题
论思想实验作为先验科学
DOI:
10.1080/02698599908573622
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发表时间:
1999
影响因子:
0.8
通讯作者:
R. Arthur
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
R. Arthur
Abstract Against Norton's claim that all thought experiments can be reduced to explicit arguments, I defend Brown's position that certain thought experiments yield a priori knowledge. They do this, I argue, not by allowing us to perceive “Platonic universals” (Brown), even though they may contain non‐propositional components that are epistemically indispensable, but by helping to identify certain tacit presuppositions or “natural interpretations” (Feyerabend's term) that lead to a contradiction when the phenomenon is described in terms of them, and by suggesting a new natural interpretation in terms of which the phenomenon can be redescribed free of contradiction.