3 ms·
I do know what a thought experiment is. What I'm trying to point is that they never are really useful because the very reason that makes them unpractical is the
by narag 4y ago
I do know what a thought experiment is. What I'm trying to point is that they never are really useful because the very reason that makes them unpractical is the reason that make them invalid. That reason is often shadowed by other reasons, but it's the fundamental flaw.
You can turn that around: the differences between the reality and the alternate reality in which the "experiment" is possible are the key to the question.
- lelanthran 4y ago> I do know what a thought experiment is. What I'm trying to point is that they never are really useful because the very reason that makes them unpractical is the reason that make them invalid. That reason is often shadowed by other reasons, but it's the fundamental flaw. I understand, but ... you don't judge whether something is useful (or not) according to some arbitrary goal, you judge based on the specific goal intended. In this case, the goal is "Does the process result in further lines of thought to exhaust, or further discussion?". I mean, you wouldn't call a brain-storming session useless if it resulted in a conclusion of "no practical implementation is feasible at this time", would you?