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Uses[edit]
Thought experiments, which are well-structured, well-defined hypothetical questions that
employ subjunctive reasoning (irrealis moods) "What might happen (or, what might have
happened) if . . . " have been used to pose questions in philosophy at least since Greek
antiquity, some pre-dating Socrates (see Rescher 1991). In physics and other sciences
many famous thought experiments date from the 19th and especially the 20th Century,
but examples can be found at least as early as Galileo.
In thought experiments we gain new information by rearranging or reorganizing already
known empirical data in a new way and drawing new (a priori) inferences from them or by
looking at these data from a different and unusual perspective. In Galileos thought
experiment, for example, the rearrangement of empirical experience consists in the
original idea of combining bodies of different weight.[10]
Thought experiments have been used in philosophy (especially ethics), physics, and other
fields (such as cognitive psychology, history, political science, economics,social
psychology, law, organizational studies, marketing, and epidemiology). In law, the
synonym "hypothetical" is frequently used for such experiments.
Regardless of their intended goal, all thought experiments display a patterned way of
thinking that is designed to allow us to explain, predict and control events in a better and
more productive way.