mind experiments. why? (for gabrielle)

gedankenexperimente (G) for short, are used in every discipline.

here are some famous Gs.

Zeno's arrow 
Putnam's Twin Earth,
Thomson's violinist, 
Einstein's elevator, 
Seartle's Chinese room, 
Schrödinger's cat,
Maxwell's demon, 
Foot's Trolley Problem,
Einstein's light beam,
Ship of Theseus, 

and many more......................................

what are the conditions under which G operates? It should not violate either logical or causal possibilities. 

what do Gs achieve?

1. they challenge the prevailing status quo (which includes activities such as correcting misinformation, or misapprehension;
2. they identify flaws in the arguments presented, to preserve objectively established facts, and to refute specific assertions that some particular thing is permissible, forbidden, known, believed, possible, or necessary;
3. they extrapolate beyond the boundaries of already established fact; predict and forecast the (otherwise) indefinite and unknowable future;
4. they explain the past; the retrodiction, postdiction and hindcasting of the (otherwise) indefinite and unknowable past;
5. they facilitate decision making, choice and strategy selection;
6. they solve problems, and generate ideas;
7. they move current (often insoluble) problems into another, more helpful and more productive problem space;
8. they attribute causation, preventability, blame and responsibility for specific outcomes;
assess culpability and compensatory damages in social and legal contexts;
9. they ensure the repeat of past success;

mind experiments are great to investigate essential properties in things.
an essential property is one that the thing cannot lose without ceasing to exist. example: consciousness in persons.

I presented in class the possibility that I, Triff, am Haitian, born of Haitian parents. Is it possible? Yes. If so, that shows that my race, or ethnicity, is not an intrinsic property of myself.
If so, we keep finding consequences, and so on.

Hope this helps.