AccScience Publishing / BIJP / Volume 10 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.18491/beytulhikme.1629
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Scientific Thought Experiments in the Context of the Norton-Brown Debate 

Alper Bilgehan Yardımcı1
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1 Pamukkale Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Felsefe Bölümü 20160, Denizli, Turkey
BIJP 2020, 10(4), 1235–1255; https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.1629
Received: 28 July 2020 | Published online: 24 November 2020
© 2020 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

The question of where the knowledge comes from when we conduct thought experiments has been one of the most fundamental issues discussed in the epistemological position of thought experiments. In this regard, Pierre Duhem shows a skeptical attitude on the subject by stating that thought experiments cannot be evaluated as real experiments or cannot be accepted as an alternative to real experiments. James R. Brown, on the other hand, states that thought experiments, which are not based on new experimental evidence or logically derived from old data, called the Platonic thought experiment, provide intuitive access to a priori knowledge. Unlike Brown, John D. Norton strictly criticizes the idea that thought experiments provide mysterious access to the knowledge of the physical world, and states that thought experiments cannot provide knowledge that transcends empiricism. In the context of the Norton-Brown debate, in this article, Brown's stance on thought experiments is supported by critically analyzing the thoughts put forward on the subject.

Keywords
Thought experiment
a priori knowledge
the argument thesis
Platonic thought experiments.
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Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, Print ISSN: 1303-8303, Published by AccScience Publishing