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Coursera notes Thought Experiments (FW-WB3927)
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Module 1Video: Footnotes to Plato
● Philosophy: cannot make it easier, but can make it more fun with our imagination
● Course will allow us to use our imagination to establish a worldview on how we should
(inter)act)
● Conceptual analysis: trying to sort out what good/evil is, what beauty is, what truth is, what
knowledge is, what existence is
● Thought experiments has been a part in philosophy since the start; flourish in all domains of
philosophy
● European philosophical tradition: follow the footnotes of Plato, due to the Socratic dialogues
● Dialogues pioneer the use of imaginary cases/thought experiments instead of restricting our
attention to real-world examples → philosophical methodology allows us/recommends us to
use our recommendation
○ Perform thought experiments to check whether an imaginary case is an example of or
rather a counterexample to some conception
Excerpt from Plato (360 B.C.E.). Theaetetus
Reading questions. What is Socrates' method of education which is at the same time his method of
doing philosophy? Why is it especially appropriate to philosophy?
Socrates method of education: asking questions, explaining things - instigated by the continual
probing questions of the teacher, in a concerted effort to explore the underlying beliefs that shape the
students views and opinions
Appropriate for philosophy as it pushes both the student and the teacher to think about the case - it is
an active arrangement between active student and active teacher
Video: an analysis of analysis
● In dialogues, you first mark the students for not giving the right kind of answers, and once
they give the right kind of answers you mark their answers by means of counter examples
● If Socrates is asking what is X: he is asking for an analysis, definition or conception of the
philosophically irrelevant notion of X
○ Not a lexical definition of X; we are interested in what X really is
● To see what we are looking for in analysis: understand the distinction between extension and
intention
○ Morning star = the evening star: not saying A is A, but person is informing us that the
star shining in the morning and the star shining in the evening are one and the same
object (Venus)
○ The morning & evening star have the same extension, but differ in their scene, their
intention
○ The intention of the morning star is the star that shines brightly in the morning and
the intention of the evening star is the star that shines brightly in the evening
● Socrates is looking for an intentional definition of X: definition in terms of individually
necessary and jointly sufficient conditions → a list of conditions such that X applies to all
things meeting the conditions and do nothing else
○ Pet: we could start listing all house animals, but we could also say it is only a pet if it
is a domesticated mammal
■ These conditions might be too strict → offer counter examples, your children
are mammals and in some way domesticated
● Aiming for conceptual analysis that is ultimately, ideally, completely immune not only to real
world counter examples but also to imaginary counter examples (thought experiments)
Video: Types of thought experiments
● Counterfactual thought experiments: flourish in many other sciences
, ● Conceptual thought experiments: question is not what if/what would happen, but design
stipulates exactly what happens in the imaginary case/scenario
● Evaluative thought experiments: what an agent should do in the imaginary, often
counterfactual case or scenario at consideration → useful in ethics
● Building on Aristotle’s distinction between natural and moral philosophy, distinguish
between:
○ Theoretical philosophy: epistemology and metaphysics, dealing with knowledge and
the external world
○ Practical philosophy
● Module 2: epistemology, what is knowledge?
● Module 3: metaphysical, what is real?
● Module 4: philosophy of mind, what is a mental state?
○ 4th kind of thought experiment: abductive thought experiments
● Module 5: what is free action?
● Module 6: what is personal identity?
● Module 7: moral/ethics, what is good?
● Module 8: social and political philosophy, what is the ideal social contract?
Glossary Module 1
abductive thought experiment
conceiving what could explain one or more experiences
conceptual analysis
venturing intensional definitions, falsifying them by means of actual or imaginary counterexamples,
and improving them by making changes to the necessary and/or sufficient conditions
conceptual thought experiment
addresses the question whether it is intuitive or counterintuitive to apply a concept to an imaginary
situation or scenario
counterfactual thought experiment
addresses a what if-question, i.e., a question what would happen if an imaginary antecedent were to
obtain
demarcation problem
question in philosophy of science how to tell science from non-science, most notably, pseudo-science
and metaphysics
epistemology
theory of knowledge; domain of theoretical philosophy investigating, among other things, the nature,
possibility, structure, sources and value of knowledge
ethics and moral philosophy
domain of practical philosophy comprising among other things meta-ethics, normative ethics and
applied ethics
evaluative thought experiment
addresses the question what an agent should do in an imaginary situation or scenario
extensional definition
lists the things to which the defined term applies
intensional definition
, definition in terms of individually necessary, and jointly sufficient conditions; list of conditions such
that the defined term applies to all things meeting the conditions, and to nothing else (as in “all and
only”)
lexical definition
reporting usage, for instance: a dictionary definition stating how native speakers employ a word in all
of its various senses
metaphysics
theory of reality; domain of theoretical philosophy investigating among other things what exists, the
nature of existence, and the structure of reality
necessary condition
something X is a necessary condition of something Y if and only if it’s impossible for Y to obtain
without X
ostensive definition
indicating the meaning of a term by pointing at a sample of the things denoted
philosophical anthropology
domain of philosophy that bridges theoretical and practical philosophy, comprising the philosophy of
action, and dealing with questions about the nature of human beings, independent of their culture, and
their relation to artifacts and other animals
practical philosophy
Aristotle’s “moral philosophy”; main domain of philosophy comprising ethics and moral philosophy,
and social and political philosophy
social and political philosophy
domain of practical philosophy investigating among other things the nature and foundations of society
and politics, how and why society should be structured, and the role politics should play
stipulative definition
introduces a new term and prescribes its meaning, or prescribes a new meaning for an old term
sufficient condition
something X is a sufficient condition of something Y, if and only if it’s impossible for X to obtain
without Y
theoretical philosophy
Aristotle’s “natural philosophy”; main domain of philosophy comprising metaphysics and
epistemology
Module 2: The Gettier Problem
Video: the traditional analysis
Conception of knowledge
1) Belief condition: knowing something requires believing it
2) Truth condition: cannot know a proposition that is not true
3) Justification condition: beliefs that are merely true do not amount to knowledge, real
knowledge requires something that rules out of cases of epistemic luck
S knows that P if and only if S believes that P, P is true and S is justified in believing that P
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