Thought Experiment↕ | Philosopher↕ | Year↕ | Field↕ | The Question↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Trolley Problem | Philippa Foot | 1967 | Ethics | Do you pull the lever to save five but kill one? Is action worse than inaction? |
Schrödinger's Cat | Erwin Schrödinger | 1935 | Quantum Physics | Is the cat alive and dead until observed? What counts as observation? |
Ship of Theseus | Plutarch | ~100 AD | Identity | If you replace every plank, is it still the same ship? When does identity change? |
Brain in a Vat | Hilary Putnam | 1981 | Epistemology | How do you know you're not a brain in a vat being fed fake experiences? (The Matrix premise) |
Chinese Room | John Searle | 1980 | Philosophy of Mind | Can a machine truly understand Chinese by following rules, or just simulate understanding? |
Plato's Cave | Plato | ~380 BC | Epistemology | Are we prisoners watching shadows on a cave wall, mistaking them for reality? |
Mary's Room | Frank Jackson | 1982 | Philosophy of Mind | If Mary knows everything about color but has never seen red, does she learn something new when she sees it? |
Veil of Ignorance | John Rawls | 1971 | Political Philosophy | What society would you design if you didn't know your place in it? |
Prisoner's Dilemma | Merrill Flood & Melvin Dresher | 1950 | Game Theory | Do you cooperate or betray when you can't communicate? Rationality vs. trust. |
Philosophical Zombie | David Chalmers | 1996 | Consciousness | Could someone behave identically to you but have zero inner experience? What IS consciousness? |
Teletransportation Paradox | Derek Parfit | 1984 | Identity | If a teleporter destroys you and creates a perfect copy, did you die? Is the copy you? |
Beetle in a Box | Ludwig Wittgenstein | 1953 | Language | If everyone has a box only they can see inside, does 'beetle' mean the same thing to everyone? |
Twin Earth | Hilary Putnam | 1973 | Semantics | If Twin Earth has XYZ that looks/tastes like water, is it water? Does meaning depend on the external world? |
Infinite Monkey Theorem | Émile Borel | 1913 | Probability | Given infinite time, will monkeys typing randomly produce Shakespeare? What does infinity actually mean? |
Experience Machine | Robert Nozick | 1974 | Ethics | Would you plug into a machine that gives perfect simulated happiness? Is real experience better than perfect illusion? |
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