Wittgenstein′s Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments

Martin Cohen is a teacher and writer specializing in philosophy, ethics and education, with a special interest in computing. His books include 101 Philosophy Problems (2nd edn., 2001), Political Philosophy (2001) and 101 Ethical Dilemmas (2003). He has been editor of The Philosopher since 1995.

"Martin Cohen's book is a delight to the intellect. His discussion of historically important thought experiments displays considerable erudition, permeated by wit and occasionally farcical invention which embellish the philosophical value of his treatment." Zenon Stavrinides, University of Bradford "Cohen's book is packed with wit and scurrilous remarks about mainstream philosophers. His inimitable writing style, which entertains as it instructs, is directed towards making philosophical ideas immediately accessible to the general reader." George MacDonald Ross, University of Leeds "One of the fun things about philosophy is that you can sit back in your armchair, set up a laboratory in your own head and calmly observe the results of mixing x with y. This is the grand tradition of the "thought experiment", to which Cohen provides a zippy alphabetical guide. Cohen's explanations of the problems are lucid, and he defends the tradition against killjoys who argue that thought experiments cannot ever give reliable conclusions. At its best the thought experiment can be a highly compressed, conceptually fruitful marriage of science and literature." Steven Poole on Wittgenstein's Beetle Saturday November 20, 2004 The Guardian "The value of this little book is that it collects a wide range of thought experiments and presents them in an accessible way. It is a good place to start, and it will be especially useful for those who teach courses on the topic and want to introduce it to a new generation of students." James Robert Brown, University of Toronto "There are several books of philosophical thought experiments currently in print... Cohen's A-Z are mostly of historic significance to science. They are wittily presented..." Times Literary Supplement

• List of Figures. Forward!. Introduction: Deep Thought -- a brief history of thought experiments. The A-Z. A is for Alice and Astronomers Arguing about Acceleration. B is for Bernard's Body-Exchange Machine. C is for the Catholic Cannibal. D is for Maxwell's Demon. E is for Evolution (and an Embarrassing Problem with it). F. is for the Forms Lost Forever to the Prisoners of the Cave. G is for Galileo's Gravitational Balls. H. is for the Hume's Shades. I is for the Identity of Indiscernible. J is for Henri Poincare and Alternative Geometries. K is for the Kritik and Kant's Kind of Thought Experiments. L is for Lucretius' Spear. M is for Mach's Motionless Chain. N is for Newton's Bucket. O is for Olber's Paradox. P is for Parfit's Person. Q is for the Questions Raised by Thought Experiments Quotidiennes. R is for the Rule-Ruled Room. S is for Salvatius' Ship, Sailing along its own Space-Time Line. T is for the time-Traveling Twins. U is for the Universe, and Einstein's Attempts to Understand it. V is for the Vexed Case of the Violinist. W is for Wittgenstein's Beetle. X is for Xenophanes and Thinking by Examples. Y is for Counterfactuals and a Backwards Approach to History. Z is for Zeno and the Mysteries of Infinity. Notes for Experimenters. How to Experiment. Notes and Cuttings. Who's Eho of Experimenting. Acknowledgements. Index.