thought experiment
Hypothetical reasoning exercise
A thought experiment is a hypothetical scenario used to explore the consequences of a principle or theory.
Rather than conducting physical tests, you reason through imagined situations: The trolley problem is a famous thought experiment in ethics.
Scientists and philosophers use them to probe ideas that can't be tested directly—Schrödinger's cat, Einstein's elevator, the brain in a vat.
Testable proposed explanation
- scenarioPostulated event sequence
- speculationUnproven theorizing or risky investment
- conjectureGuess from limited facts
- abstractionDistilling to essential qualities
simulation · modeling · counterfactual · premise · assumption · variable · paradox · reasoning
Forming mental or graphical images
- mental imageInternal visual representation
- imaginingForming mental pictures
- mind's eyeInternal visualization capacity
- conceptualizationMental creation of ideas
ideation · invention · creativity · what-if · hypothetical · fiction
Sudden profound insight
- realizationGrasping what's true
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- clarityState of being understandable
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
aha moment · breakthrough · discernment · intuition · illumination · discovery · implication · consequence
hypothesis
Testable proposed explanation
- scenarioPostulated event sequence
- speculationUnproven theorizing or risky investment
- conjectureGuess from limited facts
abstraction · simulation · modeling · counterfactual · premise · assumption · variable · paradox · reasoning · deduction
visualization
Forming mental or graphical images
- mental imageInternal visual representation
- imaginingForming mental pictures
- mind's eyeInternal visualization capacity
conceptualization · ideation · invention · creativity · what-if · hypothetical · fiction
epiphany
Sudden profound insight
- realizationGrasping what's true
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- clarityState of being understandable
revelation · aha moment · breakthrough · discernment · intuition · illumination · discovery · implication · consequence
- problem-solvingproblem solving, puzzles, riddles, logic, solutions
- brain teasersriddle, brain teaser, logic puzzles, puzzle, brainteasers
- reasoningreasoning, reason, logic, inference, deductive
- speculationconjecture, guess, guessing, speculation, hypothesis
- what-ifswhat if, hypothetical, speculation, conjecture, supposition
- philosophy termstruth, reason, knowledge, wisdom, logic
thought experimentcontrolled experiment
Test isolating one variable
field experiment · clinical trial · empirical observation · empirical research · direct observation
thought experimentreality
What actually exists
actuality · fact · truth · hard evidence · historical event
thought, experience, thoughtful, experiment, thoughts, thinker, rethink, experimental, thoughtfully