Exploring Cognitive Mechanism On Thought Experiments

Thought experiments flourish in science and in philosophy. Some fields have many more thought experiments than others. Because it may have something to do with the personalities or the scientific styles of those who do physics and philosophy. According recent research, many more authors begin to think much of thought experiments. Thought experiments become object of research from silent corner. There are various types of thought experiments in different fields. Or it may be the rapid development of cognitive science and philosophy responds to it.Different thought experiments made surprising impression. Thus researching thought experiments can begin at many different points of view, while predicting well some phenomena and things. We can explain something that we observed through them. The first, I expatiate on the history of thought experiments, attempt to see developmental path and evolutive process on them. Analysing the origin, connotation, representation forms on this concept thought experiment. I will expatiate on famous thought experiments from cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, brain science, artificial intelligence (AI) and philosophy of mind. Based on synthesis and analytic analogy, I will discuss relation of thought experiments and cognition, so that find out the philosophical problems which they imply. When exploring them, I will present the model of cognitive inference based on thought experiments, explain rationally its character, function and its cognitive mechanism. We must treat and understand thought experiments because they might imply philosophical problems. We shall expect their development in future.Therefore, my theme has the theoretic signification and the practical importance. First of all, if we make sense thought experiments in cognitive science and the history of philosophy and science, it’s useful to grasp their philosophic implication and cognitive mechanism, while it is helpful for us to understand their importance in the different fields. Secondly, To understand the model of cognitive inference based on thought experiments, I shall provide some famous thought experiments and some cognitive scientists’comments. Finally, I show the new direction of cognitive philosophy by virtue of this research for the model of cognitive inference based on thought experiments,There are seven parts in my dissertation. Part one is introduction. It includes four contents, the first is the significance and the values of choosing theme. The second is Domestic and international research status. The third is the research contents and frameworks. Finally, I will refer to the research methods and innovation. In chapter one, I narrate the origin and content of thought experiments. They involve the historical background of thought experiments, the characters and representation of thought experiments, the main research contents and fields on thought experiments (application to methodology tools on thought experiments, functions and applied values to thought experiments, on cognitive mechanism of thought experiments). In chapter two, I continue to elaborate foundation of cognitive theory on thought experiments. They are views of cognitive entity on Descartes’pineal gland, the cognitive structure on Locke’s mind container, the cognitive approach on Hume’s association of ideas, the cognitive metaphor on La Mettrie L’Homme Machine, and the cognitive control on Kant’s transcendent ego. Chapter three is the philosophical foundation of thought experiments. To illustrate this thesis I refer to three main contents and six examples, they partly come from three special periods and three very different kinds of status. The first is thought experiments and cognitive inference in16and17centuries, where they are the cognitive insight on Galileo’s thought experiments and the cognitive judgement on Newton’s Bucket. The second is thought experiments and cognitive models in18and19centuries, where they are the cognitive assumption on Faraday’s disc and the cognitive hypothesis on Maxwell’s demon. Finally, I discuss thought experiments and construction of cognitive models, where they are Schrodinger’s cat and Einstein’s thought experiments. Chapter four is the cognitive mechanism of thought experiments in the cognitive science. There are four sections. The first section of this chapter lays out thought experiments in AI, outlining the cognitive function on Symbol System Hypothesis, and the cognitive understanding on argument of Chinese Room. Section4.2introduce thought Experiments in Philosophy of Mind and Brain Science, where they are the cognitive representation on Twin Earth and Brain in vats, and black box and the cognition of brain. Section4.3introduce thought experiments in cognitive science and cognitive mechanism, present two examples, Schema on Ebbinghaus’forgetting curves, Bartlett’s schema theory and Minsky’s schema. Section4.4gives cognitive linguistics and thought experiments. I will discuss three problems. The first is cognitive context of language. The second is the general cognitive models of language. The third is the cognitive models of the context. I shall account for the model of cognitive inference based on thought experiments in last chapter. Section5.1suggests three characters on the model of cognitive inference based on thought experiments. They are the description on recollection and introspection, Link of converse diversion and the incorporating reason. Similarly, I discuss three functions of the model of cognitive inference in section5.2. The first function is advancing explanatory coherence. The second function is simulating potential working hypothesis. Last one is introjecting the cognition of brain and mental changes. Section5.3is cognitive mechanism on the model of cognitive inference. On the one hand, it involves metal simulation of experimenters; on the other hand, it is on the narrative of the text and construction of framework. I think that there are some philosophic problems in the models of cognitive inference in the section5.4. In general, we are difficult to bound rations among thought experiments, real experiments and the others. Understanding the model requires to know insufficiency of the model of cognitive inference.In addition, I shall predict developmental direction of thought experiments. I apply three kinds of methods. A method is analytics on cognitive history, for example, we can compare thought experiments between philosophy and cognitive science, because they have sameness and differentia. I also use context method, from especially different periods, and with very different kinds of status. I will use deduction and induction in order to trace history of thought experiments, so that I can research theoretic interesting and applications on the model.There are some innovations in this thesis. They are systematic view, interdisciplinary methods. I develop firstly the new model of cognitive inference based on thought experiments.