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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 1998 49(3):397-424; doi:10.1093/bjps/49.3.397
© 1998 by British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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Galileo and the Indispensability of Scientific Thought Experiment

Tamar Szabó Gendler

Department of Philosophy, Syracuse University Syracuse NY 13244-1170, USA

By carefully examining one of the most famous thought experiments in the history of science—that by which Galileo is said to have refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavier bodies fall faster than lighter ones—I attempt to show that thought experiments play a distinctive role in scientific inquiry. Reasoning about particular entities within the context of an imaginary scenario can lead to rationally justified concluusions that—given the same initial information—would not be rationally justifiable on the basis of a straightforward argument.


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