ABSTRACT
In the history of thought experiments, Plato plays a major part because one of the most influential thought experiments ever concocted is due to him. Plato's writings are full of different kinds of fiction so that the question poses itself what distinguishes thought experiments from those other kinds of fiction he employs. In order to present Plato's use of thought experiments as well as the peculiar setting they undergo in Plato's writings, the author focuses on one text, the Republic. The author looks at the idea that Platonic dialogues on the whole, being fictional, might count as thought experiments. Natural approach to a Platonic dialogue identify with the interlocutor who is inquired by Socrates, and to take Socrates' questions as being posed to the reader herself. This approach can be overcome as soon as the reader feels puzzled by the course of the conversation, and starts to look for their answers to Socrates' questions.
