Wittgenstein's Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments

Popular science by Martin Cohen

Blurb

Wittgenstein's Beetle is a book by Martin Cohen, perhaps better known for his popular introductions to philosophy, such as 101 Philosophy Problems. It was selected by The Guardian as one of its 'books of the week' and was reviewed in Times Literary Supplement which said that "With its sense of history, Wittgenstein's Beetle provides the opportunity to consider which thought experiments last."
The book is essentially an introduction to the use of the thought experiment technique in both science and philosophy. To this purpose, it offers a selection of historical examples of how the technique has been used, presented in an A-Z format, together with a brief overview of the history of the method itself.
The full title of the book is Wittgenstein's Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments, but, according to the author, it was originally supposed to have been called 'The Beetle, the Bucket and the Body-Exchange Machine' - which gives a better idea of what it is really about.

First Published

2005

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