Journal ArticleDOI
Ancient Thought Experiments: A First Approach
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This article is published in Ancient Philosophy.The article was published on 2005-04-01. It has received 19 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Ancient philosophy & Thought experiment.read more
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Book
Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the use of the theory of natural teleology in producing explanations of natural phenomena in a teleological view of the world, where natural things come to be and are present for the sake of some function or end.
Dissertation
Thought Experiments in Science
TL;DR: Thought experiments are a means of imaginative reasoning with an employment record longer than two and a half thousand years as discussed by the authors, used by Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Maxwell, and Einstein.
Book ChapterDOI
Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle's Science of Nature: Introducing biology as a demonstrative science: the theory of teleological explanation in the De Partibus Animalium I
TL;DR: This book examines Aristotle’s use of the theory of natural teleology in producing explanations of natural phenomena, and what methods are used for the discovery of functions or ends that figure in teleological explanations, how these explanations are structured, and how well they work in making sense of phenomena.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ibn Sīnā and the Early History of Thought Experiments
Abstract: The early history of philosophical thought experiments remains largely unwritten. In this article I argue for the importance of Ibn Sina (the Latin Avicenna, 980-1037) for understanding the gradual systematization of Aristotelian thought experiments and their methodology. Through a close examination of Avicenna's novel take on Aristotle’s refutation of self-motion, I develop a case for Ibn Sina being possibly the first Peripatetic to have a reflected view of what thought experiments are and how they function. Important here is Ibn Sina’s theory of the inner senses, especially his distinction between the faculties of imagination and estimation, which allows Ibn Sina to set apart idealized abstractions from imaginative feats. Ibn Sina’s case demonstrates how in the Aristotelian tradition, a naturalized basis can be postulated that will underwrite the dependability of (properly conducted) philosophical thought experiments, something to which more modern thinkers no longer have access.