ABSTRACT
Thought experimentation affords philosophy with a crucially useful instrumentality of inquiry. It is a resource that is naturally suited for the sorts of inquiries that constitute the characteristic mission of an enterprise whose prime concern is not with observation but with conceptualizations. For philosophical thought experiments are generally concerned with concepts and ideas, with modes of thinking and talking. While real experiments address nature, philosophical thought experiments address the realm of human thinking and conception. Analogies often serve as a basis for explanatory thought experiments in philosophy. Refutatory thought experiments are often deployed in philosophy in order to provide counter-examples to over-hasty generalizations. Philosophical thought experiments are generally controversial because different consequences of their launching supposition will invariably emerge from the background of very different beliefs. Thought experimentation, after all, proceeds by embedding a supposition in a wider context of cognitive commitments.
