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La Lettre n° 73 | Vie de l'École | Colloques et journées d'étude

Lundi 9 et mardi 10 juin

Philosophical Thought Experiments

Colloque organisé par l'Université d'Urbino et l'Institut Jean Nicod

Over the past thirty years the philosophical vocabulary has consolidated the use of a new expression: “thought experiment”. What is a thought experiment? Although there is no completely unanimous answer to this question, almost all authors involved in the debate on thought experiments agree that to perform a thought experiment is to reason about an imaginary scenario with the aim of confirming or disconfirming some hypotheses or a theory. Thought experiments are epistemic tools indispensable for philosophy, as such have generated a lot of philosophical interest. The aim of the workshop is to address some of the questions arisen from the debate which are still open. What is the primary function of a philosophical thought experiment? What kind of knowledge do thought experiments produce, if any? More specifically, can thought experiments produce a priori knowledge? Is there any role left for thought experiments within philosophical methodology once we let go of the currently widespread opinion that philosophy is mainly concerned with truths that are both necessary and a priori? What is the role played by our imagination in philosophical thought experimentation? How do the recent empirically and theoretically based forms of skepticism about the use of intuitions in philosophical inquiry contribute to our understanding of the “power and limits” of thought experiments?

Programme

Lieu :
Aula Magna del Palazzo Legato Albani - Collegio Raffaello
Adresse :
Piazza della Repubblica, 13 – 61029 Urbino (Italie)