The Annus Mirabilis of 1986: Thought Experiments and Scientific Pluralism

Abstract

This article is about the remarkable explosion in the literature on thought experiments since the 1980s. It enters uncharted territory. The year 1986 is of particular interest: James R. Brown presents his Platonism about thought experiments for the first time in Dubrovnik, and in Pittsburgh, John D. Norton shares his empiricist approach with participants in what was probably the twentieth century’s very first major conference on thought experiments. It was the time when philosophy of science had taken a pluralistic turn, and the article develops the notion that this is a key factor in the outburst of discussions about thought experiments in the 1980s.