On Thought Experiment

Thought experiment is a mental activity unconstrained by external environment. The experimenter can get into any experimental environment with the wing of imagination. Thought experiment is a kind of rational thinking mode in terms of scientific methodology. This important methodology has been so important in many fields that it has become a non-replaceable methodology in philosophic studies. This approach is freed from any material constraints, thus can improve man's ideation in achieving a scientific cognition about the world. Focused on this starting point, this thesis expounds the effects of thought experiment in detail and explores the construct and its veriying methods.The first part expounds the characteristics and types of thought experiment. On the basis of the connotation of thought experiment, it further introduces the basic characteristics and types. Is has been in use since ancient times. This kind of mental experiment lacks the concrete experimental apparatus required of any other laboratory practice. Rather, with logical reasoning as the foundation, the experiment is realized in the mind. There are two cases of thought experiments: gedanken experiment and thought experiment. Abstract, ideal, logic as it is, thought experiment is featured by its correlation with biological experiment and low cost and the fewer risks. As for the types of thought experiment, there are three types: critical mode, revolution mode and comprehensive mode.The second part analyzes the effects and significance of though experiment. Thought experiment is both a scientific research technique and a way of representation. Its reasoning significance reinforces the visualizability of logic justification and refutation. It helps to construct a new theory by reforming the old one in opening new fields in research studies without and concrete constraints required of material experiment. For the significance in epistemology, thought experiment has enriched the approaches of scientific cognition of the world and propelled the application of the scientific fruits in achieving a more scientific cognition of the world.The third part mainly discusses the construct and proving methods of thoughtexperiment. As the vital procedure in the process of thought experiment, the construct of thought experiment is the transcendence of experiment process that reveals and interprets the experimental facts that have not been fully comprehended. The new conception about the objective world is brought forward by motivating the thinking initiative of the experimenter. Logic analysis plays very important roles in the construct and proving of thought experiment. It judges the validity of a certain thought experiment with logic reasoning, but not the sole criterion. We to conduct a material experiment to prove the thought experiment. With the related information collected from social activities, material experiment proves the content described in thought experiment by observation and experiments. Therefore, the statements about the experiments are tested if they are objective facts derived from the thought experiment. The construct and verification of thought experiment must adhere to three unity principles: the unity of reference and originality;the unity of scientificallness and tolerance;the unity logic feasibility and practical possibility.