Thought Experiments
Ship of Theseus
If a ship’s parts are to be replaced over time, is it still the same ship?
The Ship of Theseus, one of the well-known philosophical thought experiments, raises questions about the nature of identity and continuity over time. In the paradox, the question is whether a ship that has had all its components replaced throughout time is still the same.
The Trolley Car Problem
Would you sacrifice one person to save many people?
The Trolley Problem is a famous ethical thought experiment that challenges the ethics of sacrificing one life to save many others. Typically, the hypothetical situation is as follows:
You’re standing next to a tram track, watching as a runaway tram approaches five people who are chained to the track and unable to escape. However, if you notice a nearby lever, the tram would be diverted onto a different track, killing the person connected to that track in its place. What do you do?
The Chinese Room
Can a machine understand or mimic language?
In The Chinese Room thought experiment, the question of whether a machine can genuinely understand language or merely mimic it. This experiment is as follows.
A non-Chinese-speaking person is locked in a room with a book filled with Chinese symbols and a set of instructions for manipulating the symbols.
A person from outside passes a note to him written in Chinese. The person inside the room responds to the note as per the regulations before passing the note back to the person outside.
Do knowledge and intellect come from simply adhering to rules and manipulating symbols or if something deeper in human consciousness enables us to comprehend language?
The Experience Machine
Would you plug into a machine that gives a perfect life simulation, not real experiences?
This philosophical thought experiments is as follows: Imagine there exists a machine that can simulate perfect life experiences, where one can feel and experience anything they desire without suffering any consequences.
They couldn’t tell the difference between the simulation and the real world since this ideal life simulation would be so believable. Then, this experiment asks whether you would plug into this machine and spend the rest of your life in the virtual world.
The Sorites Paradox
At what point does a small change in quantity lead to a change in quality?
The Sorites Paradox is one of the philosophical thought experiments which ventures into the nature of limits and how we define them. Here is how it follows:
Imagine a mound of sand with a million grains in it. The pile of sand is unaffected by the removal of even one grain. Even if another grain is removed, it remains a sand pile.
This cycle continues until only a few sand grains are left. When does a sand mound stop becoming a pile? In other words, when does a small change in quantity cause a big difference in quality?
Put another way: when you eat a sandwich, when does the sandwich stop being a sandwich and start being you?
Mary’s Room
Is there more to conscious experience than just physical processes in the brain?
Philosopher Frank Jackson propounded Mary’s Room to refute the physicalist theory of the mind-brain connection. The experiment is as follows:
Mary, a talented scientist, has lived her entire life in a room with a TV monitor in black and white. She knows everything there is to know about colour vision, but she has never seen colours.
After being let out of the room one day, she notices a red apple. Despite never having experienced colour vision firsthand, the question is whether Mary learns anything new about what it’s like to see red or if she already knew everything there was to know about it.