The Thought Experiment Library
Thought Experiments
Organized by Category
AESTHETICS
1.
Dewey's finely wrought object
An object believed to be art loses aesthetic status when discovered to be accidental; argues that artistic intention and context are essential to art classification, not merely physical properties.
2.
Ziff's peculiar and eccentric object
Questions whether any object can be viewed aesthetically; challenges the boundaries of aesthetic appreciation by suggesting everything can potentially be an aesthetic object.
3.
Arthur's randomly generated objects
Explores whether randomly created objects can be art; tests whether intentionality is necessary for aesthetic status or if structure alone suffices.
4.
Loathe letter thought experiment
Carroll's experiment examining aesthetic responses to disliked content; explores whether we can separate aesthetic merit from personal distaste.
5.
What determines Low Art vs High Art
High art requires cultivated taste and education to appreciate, while low art is immediately accessible; debates whether accessibility or complexity determines aesthetic hierarchy.
6.
Value of Authentic vs Cultural Amalgamation
Authentic culture preserves original traditions while amalgamation creates new hybrid forms; argues whether cultural purity or creative synthesis holds greater value.
7.
Worth of Temporary vs Permanent
Temporary things can have value without making permanent differences; challenges temporal nihilism by arguing value exists in the moment regardless of lasting impact.IDENTITY
8.
Parfit's nobelist
90-year-old Nobel winner who committed crimes at 20—does lifelong goodness negate past crimes?; questions whether personal identity persists enough to justify punishment decades later.
9.
Brownson
Brown's brain transplanted into Robinson's body creates "Brownson"; argues psychological continuity, not bodily continuity, determines personal identity.
10.
Brave general
General remembers being officer who remembers being flogged boy, but doesn't remember flogging; Reid's objection shows Locke's memory theory violates transitivity of identity.
11.
Ship of Theseus
Ship with all parts gradually replaced—is it the same ship?; explores whether identity persists through complete material change or requires continuity of form.
12.
Prince and cobbler
Prince's consciousness enters cobbler's body while cobbler enters prince's body; Locke argues person follows consciousness, not body, making cobbler's body the prince.
13.
Fission
Person's brain hemispheres transplanted into two bodies creating two psychologically continuous people; Parfit argues identity isn't what matters—psychological continuity is.
14.
Teletransporter
Machine destroys body while creating exact replica elsewhere—does original survive?; Parfit argues psychological continuity via appropriate cause constitutes survival, not strict identity.
15.
The Clone Murder
Killing someone with perfect clone waiting—is it murder?; tests whether replaceability affects wrongness of killing or whether each person has irreplaceable value.
16.
The Memory Deletion Option
Technology erases traumatic memories—should you use it?; explores whether authentic selfhood requires retaining painful experiences versus right to psychological relief.FREE WILL
17.
Kavka poison
Billionaire pays you to intend to drink toxin tomorrow, payment comes before deadline; paradox where rational intent today becomes irrational action tomorrow.
18.
Willing addict
Frankfurt's addict who desires his addiction and doesn't want to stop; demonstrates free will requires second-order volitions aligning with first-order desires.
19.
Locke's voluntary prisoner
Man locked in room unknowingly but prefers to stay—is staying voluntary?; questions whether absence of alternatives negates voluntariness when preference aligns with circumstance.
20.
Ingenious physiologist
Taylor's physiologist who can induce any volition by manipulating brain; challenges whether actions caused by external manipulation can be free.
21.
Goldman's Book of Life
Thought experiment showing determinism cannot be falsified; argues we cannot distinguish determined world from free world through observation.
22.
Lyon's card predictor
Predictor announces which card you'll play, prompting you to choose opposite; explores self-defeating predictions and limits of foreknowledge.EPISTEMOLOGY
23.
Gavagai
Linguist hearing "gavagai" cannot determine if it means rabbit, rabbit-parts, or temporal slices; demonstrates indeterminacy of translation and reference.
24.
William James's 2 way home
Pragmatism evaluates truth by practical consequences, not abstract correspondence; argues beliefs are true insofar as they prove useful in guiding action.
25.
The Chinese Room
Person in room follows rules matching Chinese symbols without understanding Chinese; Searle argues syntax (symbol manipulation) doesn't create semantics (understanding/consciousness).
26.
Mary's Room
Scientist Mary knows all physical facts about color but has never seen color; Jackson argues Mary learns something new upon seeing red, so physicalism is false.
27.
The Language Limit (Wittgenstein)
Private language is impossible because rule-following requires public criteria; argues meaning derives from social practice, not private mental states.
28.
The Problem of Induction
Past patterns don't logically guarantee future resemblance; Hume shows we cannot rationally justify inductive inferences from observed to unobserved.
29.
Philosophical Zombies
Being physically identical to human but lacking consciousness; Chalmers argues zombie conceivability shows consciousness isn't reducible to physical processes.
30.
The Meta-Problem of Consciousness
Why do we think consciousness is hard to explain?; Chalmers asks what causes our intuitions about consciousness being irreducible to physics.
31.
Self-Defeating Beliefs
Belief that undermines itself when held (e.g., "all beliefs are irrational"); explores logical problems with beliefs whose content contradicts their own possibility.
32.
Library of Babel
Infinite library containing every possible book permutation; Borges explores meaninglessness emerging from infinite information where everything is written.
33.
Hume's constant conjunction
Causation is not necessary connection but merely constant conjunction—repeated observation of A followed by B; argues we never perceive causal power itself, only habit from repeated pairing creates expectation.
34.
Hume's missing shade of blue
Person sees all blue shades except one middle shade, yet can imagine missing shade without experiencing it; only counterexample Hume acknowledged to his Copy Principle that all ideas derive from impressions, though he dismissed it as trivial exception.
35.
Descartes' wax
Solid wax melts into liquid—all sensory properties change yet we know it's same wax; argues intellect, not senses, grasps essence of physical objects since understanding persists through sensory transformation.
36.
Locke's blank slate (tabula rasa)
Mind at birth is blank slate filled by sensory experience, no innate ideas; empiricist foundation arguing all knowledge derives from experience through five senses, opposing rationalist innate knowledge claims.
37.
Berkeley's tree falling in forest
If tree falls with no one to hear it, does it make sound?; Berkeley argues nothing exists unperceived (esse est percipi)—tree and sound require perceiving mind, possibly God's perception sustains unobserved existence.
38.
Gettier problem
Smith has justified true belief Jones will get job based on false premise, yet belief is accidentally true for different reason; shows justified true belief is insufficient for knowledge—luck can produce true justified beliefs that aren't knowledge, requiring fourth condition to avoid epistemic luck.ETHICS
39.
Veil of Ignorance
Rawls's device where people choose societal principles without knowing their social position; promotes fairness by removing self-interested biases from moral reasoning.
40.
2 shipwrecked prisoners
Variant of prisoner's dilemma where cooperation yields mutual benefit but defection is individually rational; demonstrates tension between individual and collective rationality.
41.
Ownership vs labor rights
Property rights emerge from labor but restrictions on labor are takings of property; explores tension between self-ownership and freedom to work.
42.
Locke's acorns and apples
Picking acorns from nature creates property by mixing labor with common resources; establishes labor theory of property where work justifies private appropriation.
43.
Tragedy of commons
Shared resources are overexploited when individuals pursue self-interest; demonstrates how rational individual behavior leads to collective ruin without regulation.
44.
Lifeboat
Lifeboat with limited capacity surrounded by swimmers raises distribution ethics; forces choices about who deserves rescue when resources are scarce.
45.
Trolley problem
Switch diverts trolley from killing five to killing one—is switching permissible?; Foot/Thomson explore difference between killing and letting die, doing and allowing harm.
46.
Utility monster
Being that derives vastly more pleasure from resources than others; Nozick's objection shows utilitarianism could justify sacrificing everyone to maximize one monster's pleasure.
47.
Moral Luck
Two drunk drivers, one kills child by bad luck—are they equally blameworthy?; Nagel/Williams argue luck affects moral standing despite intuition it shouldn't.
48.
Pig who wants to be eaten
Genetically engineered pig desiring to be eaten—is eating it ethical?; tests whether consent alone justifies harm, questioning validity of manufactured desires.
49.
Smart deluded sadist
Solitary being falsely believes others suffer and is happy about it; tests hedonistic utilitarianism by asking if pleasure from false beliefs has value.
50.
Feinberg's egoist
Person pursuing only happiness achieves nothing because pursuit defeats itself; paradox showing happiness as sole aim prevents its achievement.
51.
Warren's space explorer
Explorer could be cloned into thousands—must he sacrifice himself for potential persons?; argues potential persons lack rights that outweigh actual person's rights.
52.
Experience machine
Machine provides perfect simulated pleasures—would you plug in?; Nozick argues we value reality and authentic achievement beyond mere pleasure.
53.
Fair inequality
Better off than past vs better off than contemporaries—which matters?; explores whether progress or relative standing determines satisfaction with inequality.
54.
Ring of Gyges
Invisibility ring allowing undetected crime—would just person use it?; Plato tests whether justice is valued intrinsically or merely for consequences.
55.
Red pill vs blue pill
Choose painful truth or comfortable illusion (Matrix scenario); explores value of knowledge vs happiness, whether ignorant bliss is preferable.
56.
Ticking time bomb
Terrorist knows bomb location—is torture justified to extract information?; argument against deontology showing extreme consequences can override moral prohibitions.
57.
Violinist
You wake connected to famous violinist who needs your kidneys for nine months; Thomson argues bodily autonomy right allows disconnection even if violinist dies.
58.
The Drowning Child
Child drowning in pond, saving ruins expensive clothes—must you save?; Singer argues no moral difference between nearby drowning child and distant starving child.
59.
The Diner's Dilemma
Diners splitting bill each order expensive meals imposing costs on others; game theory shows free-rider problem where individual rationality creates collective suboptimality.
60.
The Shame Removal Drug
Drug eliminates capacity for shame—should society use it?; explores whether negative emotions serve essential social/moral functions despite causing suffering.
61.
Ethical Offloading
AI makes moral decisions for humans—does this diminish moral responsibility?; explores whether delegating ethical choices to machines erodes human moral agency.
62.
The Timeless Betrayal
Betrayal that victim never discovers—is betrayer wrongdoer?; questions whether moral wrongs require harm awareness or whether betrayal itself constitutes wrong.
63.
The Unequal Rescue
Save one stranger or five family members—which is right?; tests whether partiality toward loved ones is morally permissible or whether impartiality is demanded.
64.
The Impartial Spectator
Imagine judging own actions from perspective of neutral observer; Adam Smith's device for conscience where morality emerges from sympathetic impartiality.
65.
Does distance/time lessen the immorality of a wrong act?
Temporal and spatial distance from harm don't diminish moral culpability; Singer argues geographic proximity is morally irrelevant—suffering matters equally regardless of location or time elapsed.
66.
Should duty be rewarded?
Kant argues duty motivated by reward lacks moral worth—only acting from duty itself has genuine moral value; challenge questions why anyone would fulfill supererogatory duties without incentive.
67.
Should charity that rewards still count as charity?
If charity provides benefits (tax breaks, recognition) to donor, does it remain genuine altruism?; explores whether self-interested motivation negates charitable value.
68.
Antifish philosophy
Boss asks for lower pay, but workers can't ask for less work; asymmetry where capital can negotiate downward but labor cannot; exposes power imbalances in supposedly voluntary employment relationships.
69.
Is merely thinking bad if it hurts no one?
Thought crimes without action—are sadistic fantasies immoral if never enacted?; tests whether morality governs internal mental states or only externally harmful actions.
70.
Do you wrong someone if they consent to it?
Consent as sufficient condition for permissibility—can valid consent justify any harm?; explores limits of autonomy and whether some harms are wrong despite agreement.REST (Metaphysics, Existentialism, etc.)
71.
Imagining Sisyphus happy
Sisyphus rolling boulder eternally can find happiness in struggle; Camus argues embracing absurdity and creating meaning makes futile tasks meaningful.
72.
Interstellar Orphans
Generation ship children born mid-voyage never consented—is mission ethical?; questions whether creating people into constrained circumstances wrongs them if alternatives would prevent their existence.
73.
Terraforming Ethics
Transform lifeless planet or preserve it pristine—does pristine nature have value?; explores whether nature has intrinsic value or only instrumental value for conscious beings.
74.
Wheeler's delayed choice
Photon behavior seems determined by future measurement choice; quantum experiment suggesting present can affect past, challenging temporal causation.
75.
Eternalism
All times exist equally, past/present/future are equally real; block universe view where time's passage is illusion and all moments exist eternally.
76.
Simulation Therapy
Virtual reality therapy for trauma—is simulated healing genuine?; questions whether simulated experiences have therapeutic value equivalent to real experiences.
77.
Hyperbolic Discounting
People choose immediate small rewards over delayed large rewards; demonstrates time-inconsistent preferences where future patience is overestimated.
78.
Planet of Clones
Society of genetically identical individuals—does diversity matter?; explores whether genetic variation has intrinsic value or whether uniformity is acceptable.
79.
Eternal Growth Economy
Economy requiring infinite growth on finite planet—is this sustainable?; highlights contradiction between infinite economic expansion and planetary boundaries.
80.
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