Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

The philosophy of mind is notoriously one of the areas of philosophical inquiry which has been most heavily affected by the use of thought experiments. Although the modern tradition has abundantly thought-experimented with the mind, in more recent times the systematic use of imaginary cases as a means of bringing to the fore the implausibility of rival theses has arguably become one of the most distinctive methodological features of the philosophical refection on mind. Yet a considerable amount of disagreement still reigns both over the general purposes of these puzzling mental procedures, and over the epistemic status enjoyed by their often unstable deliverances. The talk intends to contribute to a deeper understanding of this widespread methodology by focusing on the nature and function of thought-experimental scenarios, the fictional narratives that philosophers of mind typically appeal to in order to support their views.