Dave and Tamler talk about the value and purposes of thought experiments in philosophy and science. Does the trolley problem tell us more about moral psychology than how people make judgments in trolley problems? Can an imagined scenario about two balls refute an almost two thousand year old theory of falling objects? When young virgin Dave learned all the physical facts about sex, did he learn anything new when it finally happened? All this and more in Part One of our two part episode on this topic.
LinksThe experience machine [wikipedia.org]
Mary the color scientist [wikipedia.org]
Zombies [wikipedia.org]
Qualia [wikipedia.org]
The Violinist from "A defense of Abortion" [wikipedia.org]
The Ship of Theseus [wikipedia.org]
Newcomb's Paradox [wikipedia.org]
Ring of Gyges [wikipedia.org]
Peter Singer's thought experiment [wikipedia.org]
Veil of Ignorance [wikipedia.org]
Galileo's Balls [philosophical-investigations.org]