ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history of various thought experiments (TEs); where one can find a wide spectrum of variation. Some TEs are relatively stable over time, such as Galileo's falling bodies thought experiment; others have undergone a series of minor modifications, such as Lucretius' spear modification of Archytas' hand at the edge of the universe. And some TEs have been given radically different interpretations by different thinkers even during the same period of time. One can identify identity conditions for TEs through historical insights. Some scholars, such as Ian Hacking, have outright denied that thought experiments can evolve and be retooled. Other scholars, when confronted with prima facie evidence about the historical evolution of a particular thought experiment, argue that the plasticity is only an illusion, and that TEs, when properly construed, are immutable. Hence, although both the material realization and the theoretical interpretation are instantiated in an experiment, they are conceptually distinct.
