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The term 'Thought Experiment' is one of the vaguest terms in use in philosophy today. Although the term is often tidily traced back to the German term Gedankenexperiment, coined by Hans Christian Ørsted), the activity goes back to the start of philosophy itself. The Ancient Greeks were keen 'thought experimenters', with Ptolomy and others using the technique to demonstrate (incorrectly, of course) that the Earth must be fixed at the center of the universe, and that, what's more it must be motionless too. In the medieval period in Europe, the public activity of 'disputations' involved much use of thought experiments, the aim being to arrive at a logical contradiction. One example of this is the disproof of Aristotle's claim that objects travelled through the air propelled by the pressure of the air rushing in behind them. The opponent would ask the Aristotelian to consider then the case of a lance sharpened at both ends. Would the reduced ability of the air to press on the sharpened handle make it travel through the air more slowly than its conventional cousin, sharpened only at the point? Nor do philosophers really appreciate the role of thought experiments in science. Yet, as the contemporary philosopher, Martin Cohen puts it, "much of modern physics is built not upon measurement but on thought experimentation".[1]. As Cohen argues, the Renaissance period and the Enlightenment were characterised by breakthroughs in ways of seeing the world, not merely by new methods (and tools) for 'measuring' it. Thus it is that perhaps the key experiment in the history of modern science, again toppling the lofty but inaccurate view of Aristotle, is Galileo's (Galileo Galilei) demonstration that falling objects must fall at the same rate regardless of their masses. This is widely thought [2] to have been a straightforward physical demonstration, involving climbing up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropping two heavy weights off it, whereas in fact, it was clearly a logical demonstration, using the 'thought experiment' technique. The 'experiment is described by Galileo in Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche (1628) (literally, 'Mathematical Discourses and Demonstrations') thus Although the extract does not convey the elegance and power of the 'demonstration' terribly well, it is clear that it is a 'thought' experiment, rather than a practical one. Strange then, as Cohen says, that philosophers and scientists alike refuse to acknowledge either Galileo in particular, or the thought experiment technique in general for its pivotal role in both science and philosophy.
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