Dr. J. Maggio, 06/21/, 2011

You are always interesting/smart, but this statement is DEAD wrong:

“Their purpose is to strip away complicating factors by stipulation in order to get down to bare principles, usually to resolve one narrow type of abstract question by artificially isolating it, as variables are isolated in a laboratory experiment. ”

NO. That is what philosophers try to tell people thought-experiments do. But they are actually, as Metcalf inelegantly points out, are essentially rhetoric. The veil of ignorance isn’t compelling because it reduces arguments down to a “lab experiment.” If you think you are doing that, then you really are buying into the worst aspects of analytical philosophy. “Thought experiments” are, as Foucault pointed out over-and-over to Habermas, simply another way of being rhetorical. They serve the same purpose as an anecdote or example. To attempt to move from D1 to D2, as Nozick does, is fine if we realize it is simply a way to illustrate a compelling reason to doubt predetermined justice outcomes. But it isn’t “proof” or “verification” of anything in the sense of a lab experiment or, even, a good dialectic argument.

Julian Sanchez, 06/21/11

Well, I don’t mean the analogy with lab experiments to be taken TOO literally, but forgive me if I’m not prepared to take “Foucault said” as a freestanding refutation. To be sure, plenty of thought experiments (this one included) have a rhetorical element. But they also genuinely do work to test our intuitions in artificial scenarios that help us to isolate which aspects of the situation we’re responding to. If you want to insist “no they don’t”… well, all I can say is that doesn’t jibe with my experience spending time sitting and thinking about such scenarios. They aren’t, after all, JUST weapons deployed by ideological combatants, but also things people cook up for themselves to try to clarify their thoughts.

以上是就「思考性實驗」性質和應用的討論。摘錄自Mr. Sanchez的部落格；它是和Nozick論戰相關的插曲。請參閱《批判R. Nozick及公民自由權主義(The Liberty Scam)》一欄。 -- 卜凱

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2011/06/21/nozick-libertarianism-and-thought-experiments/