“Just-so” stories about “inner cognitive africa”: Some doubts about Sorensen's evolutionary epistemology of thought experiments
Biology and Philosophy 12 (2) (1997)
| Abstract | Roy Sorensen advances an evolutionary explanation of our capacity for thought experiments which doubles as a naturalized epistemological justification. I argue Sorensens explanation fails to satisfy key elements of environmental-selectionist explanations and so fails to carry epistemic force. I then argue that even if Sorensen succeeds in showing the adaptive utility of our capacity, he still fails to establish its reliability and hence epistemic utility. I conclude Sorensens account comes to little more than a just-so story. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesSören Häggqvist (2007). The A Priori Thesis. Croatian Journal of Philosophy 7 (1):47-61.
Roy A. Sorensen (1991). Moral Dilemmas, Thought Experiments, and Conflict Vagueness. Philosophical Studies 63 (3):291 - 308.
John Zeimbekis (2011). Thought Experiments and Mental Simulations. In Katerina Ierodiakonou & Sophie Roux (eds.), Thought Experiments in Methodological and Historical Contexts. Brill.
Elke Brendel (2004). Intuition Pumps and the Proper Use of Thought Experiments. Dialectica 58 (1):89–108.
Ned Markosian (2000). Sorensen's Argument Against Vague Objects. Philosophical Studies 97 (1):1-9.
John D. Norton (2004). Why Thought Experiments Do Not Transcend Empiricism. In Christopher Hitchcock (ed.), Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Science. Blackwell.
Roy A. Sorensen (1992). Thought Experiments and the Epistemology of Laws. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 22 (1):15-44.
Roy A. Sorensen (1992). Thought Experiments. Oxford University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads28 ( #44,113 of 549,108 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,390 of 549,108 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
