ABSTRACT
Scientific thought experiments aim to provide us with insight into the modus operandi of nature. Every branch of science admits of thought experimentation. Scientific thought experimentation in sum is not an instrumentality of demonstration but rather merely one of plausibilification: it is a tool not of proof but of plausible reasoning. Accordingly, there are good reasons for resorting to thought experimentation in science in lieu of actual experimentation. The actual experiment may be Superfluous, Unaffordable, Too time consuming, and, Impracticable. Thought experimentation has been making significant inroads in historiography. The primary aim of historical inquiry is to elucidate the past to describe and to explain the course of past events. In this regard, the distinction between falsifying and truthifying causal counterfactuals is particularly significant in the context of historical issues. All in all, then, thought experimentation is, in suitably different ways, a workable and instructive resource for science and for history.
