McComb Geordie

University of Victoria
Vancouver Island University
  • Thought Experiment, Definition and Literary Fiction
    In Letitia Meynell Mélanie Frappier James R. Brown (ed.), Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Science, and the Arts. pp. 207-222. 2013.
    I introduce a middle route between giving a sharp definition and examples to explain what a thought experiment is. It comprises an account of the concept thought experiment that we can rightly apply to different extents. Three explanatory virtues of this account include (i) that we can use it to explain why one thing may seem to be less of a thought experiment than another, (ii) that it provides for a fine-grained explanation of the relation between literary fiction and thought experiment and …Read more
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    First, I motivate the following contradiction: since Einstein’s elevator thought experiment is a method used in a natural science, it is a naturalistic method; yet, since it is a method used to justify a constitutive principle, it is a non-naturalistic method. Second, I argue that prima facie the best response to this contradiction, given my motivations for it, is to allow that some naturalistic methods can be used to justify constitutive principles.