BOOK COVER -- HALF-TITLE -- TITLE -- COPYRIGHT -- DEDICATION -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- 1 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE LABORATORY OF THE MIND -- GALILEO ON FALLING BODIES -- STEVIN ON THE INCLINED PLANE -- NEWTON ON CENTRIPETAL FORCE AND PLANETARY MOTION -- NEWTON'S BUCKET AND ABSOLUTE SPACE -- EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY -- POINCARE AND REICHENBACH ON GEOMETRY -- NON-EXAMPLES -- EINSTEIN CHASES A LIGHT BEAM -- SEEING AND MANIPULATING -- EINSTEIN'S ELEVATOR -- HEISENBERG'S Y-RAY MICROSCOPE -- SCHRODINGER'S CAT -- EPR -- PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- THE STATUS OF PHILOSOPHICAL EXAMPLES -- OTHER FIELDS -- 2 THE STRUCTURE OF THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- DESTRUCTIVE THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- CONSTRUCTIVE THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- MEDIATIVE THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- CONJECTURAL THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- DIRECT THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- PLATONIC THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- THEORY AND EVIDENCE -- NORTON'S EMPIRICISM -- 3 MATHEMATICAL THINKING -- COMBINATORICS -- WHAT IS PLATONISM? -- THE FAINT OF HEART -- A FLABBY EXPLANATION? -- DOES IT MATTER? -- A MYSTERIOUS PROCESS? -- THE CAUSAL THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE -- 4 SEEING THE LAWS OF NATURE -- WHAT ARE PLATONIC THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS? -- WHY A PRIORI? -- LAWS OF NATURE -- LAWS AS RELATIONS AMONG UNIVERSALS -- LAWS AND THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS -- OBJECTIONS AND REPLIES -- DISCOVERY VS JUSTIFICATION -- KUHN'S PARADIGMS -- A PRIORI BUT FALSE? -- POSSIBLE WORLDS REASONING? -- GALILEO AS A RATIONALIST -- THE STATUS OF THE THEORY -- 5 EINSTEIN'S BRAND OF VERIFICATIONISM -- FALL OF THE POSITIVIST IMAGE -- PROBLEMS WITH THE DEVELOPMENTAL PICTURE -- PRINCIPLE AND CONSTRUCTIVE THEORIES -- FREE CREATIONS OF THE MIND -- EINSTEIN'S REALISM -- RELATIVITY AS A PRINCIPLE THEORY -- EINSTEIN'S BRAND OF VERIFICATIONISM -- EINSTEIN AND LEIBNIZ -- REAL EXPERIMENTS -- EINSTEIN AND BOHR -- CONCLUDING REMARKS.

6 QUANTUM MECHANICS: A PLATONIC INTERPRETATION -- THE ROAD TO COPENHAGEN -- THE QM FORMALISM -- INTERPRETATIONS -- FROM BOHR TO WIGNER -- EPR -- SCHRODINGER'S KITTENS -- THE BELL RESULTS -- CONCEPTS OF LOCALITY -- OPTIONS -- 1. A brute fact -- 2. Non-local, contextual hidden variables -- 3. Laws as causes of correlations -- PASSION AT A DISTANCE -- CORRELATIONS AND THE LAWS OF NATURE -- CONCLUSION -- AFTERWORD -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.

Thought experiments are performed in the laboratory of the mind. Beyond this metaphor it is difficult to say just what these remarkable devices for investigating nature are or how they work. Though most scientists and philosophers would admit their great importance, there has been very little serious study of them. This volume is the first book-length investigation of thought experiments. Starting with Galileo's argument on falling bodies, Brown describes numerous examples of the most influential thought experiments from the history of science. Following this introduction to the subject, some substantial and provocative claims are made, the principle being that some thought experiments should be understood in the same way that platonists understand mathematical activity: as an intellectual grasp of an independently existing abstract realm. With its clarity of style and structure, The Laboratory of the Mind will find readers among all philosophers of science as well as scientists who have puzzled over how thought experiments work.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.