A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT IS ONE THAT EXISTS PURELY IN the mind and it differs in purpose from a scientific experiment because the object is to clarify analogical reasoning rather than to collect experimental evidence. The scientific community does not scoff at thought experiments, but rather treats them as being occasionally useful for clarification. Some of these experiments, partially through their flashy names, are now embedded in the intellectual lexicon. “The Trolley Problem” and “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” get used quite a lot in ethics and economics. Yet, the thought experiment remains underused.
Thought experiments, when framed by scientific principles and shaped by logic, can clear up much of the confusion in what may broadly be conceived of as the problems inherent in the entire modern conception of knowledge and theories about knowledge. Scientific experiments exist to collect research data; thought experiments exist to help us collect our thoughts and correct our perceptions. As a scholar and teacher my interests are in the development of cross-curricular lessons and insights. Thought experiments function in a traditional philosophical sense by actually solving problems. However, they also, and probably more than any other teaching method, require students to think at a deep level in the subject of analogy. What is similar and what is different between cases? In addition; thought experiments always require students to study the situation in a meta-cognitive way, but challenging their own base assumptions involving the subjects at hand. They might be the key in breaking away from the passing-on-of-received-knowledge-and-skills educational model that still dominates.