Paradoxes
#thought experiment
84 articles
Paradoxes
Buridan's Ass: Starving Between Two Identical Choices
Thought Experiments
Barn Facades: Seeing the Real Thing and Still Not Knowing
Thought Experiments
The Beetle in a Box: Can Private Contents Mean Anything?
Thought Experiments
The China Brain: A Billion People Playing Neurons
Thought Experiments
Cryonics and the Self: Is the Person Who Thaws Still You?
Thought Experiments
The Devil's Proof: Can You Prove Something Is Not There?
Thought Experiments
The Doomsday Argument: Is My Being Here Evidence of the End?
Thought Experiments
The Drowning Child: Why Save the Near One and Not the Far One?
Thought Experiments
Chasing a Beam of Light: Would It Look Frozen If You Caught It?
Thought Experiments
Eternal Recurrence: Would You Live This Life Again, Endlessly?
Thought Experiments
The Extended Mind: Is Your Phone Part of Your Memory?
Thought Experiments
Parfit's Fission: If I Become Two People, Which One Am I?
Thought Experiments
The Five-Minute Hypothesis: A World Created With Its Memories
Thought Experiments
Frankfurt Cases: Responsible With No Choice in the Matter
Thought Experiments
Duties to Future Generations: Owing Something to the Unborn
Thought Experiments
Galileo's Falling Bodies: A Piece of String Undoes 2,000 Years
Thought Experiments
The Gettier Problem: Is Justified True Belief Really Knowledge?
Thought Experiments
The Great Filter: Is the Silence Because a Barrier Lies Ahead?
Thought Experiments
The Happy Slave: Is Being Satisfied Enough for a Good Life?
Thought Experiments
Inverted Qualia: The Red I See May Be the Blue You See
Thought Experiments
The Invisible Gardener: What Does a Qualified Claim Still Say?
Thought Experiments
The Last Man: Is Burning a Forest Wrong If Nobody Is Left?
Thought Experiments
The Library of Babel: Every Book Exists and Nothing Can Be Known
Thought Experiments
A Drug That Erases Memory: Is What's Left Still You?
Thought Experiments
Mind Uploading: Does the Person Move, or Is It Just a Copy?
Thought Experiments
Molyneux's Problem: Can Touch Teach the Eye a Shape?
Thought Experiments
The Murderer at the Door: Is a Lie That Saves a Friend Wrong?
Thought Experiments
Newton's Bucket: Rotation Relative to What, Exactly?
Thought Experiments
The Non-Identity Problem: Wrong Even Though Nobody Is Harmed
Thought Experiments
The Paperclip Maximiser: Why a Harmless Goal Remakes the World
Thought Experiments
Pascal's Wager: Can Expected Value Decide Whether to Believe?
Thought Experiments
Plato's Cave: Prisoners Who Take Shadows for the World
Thought Experiments
The Prince and the Cobbler: Am I Still Me in Another Body?
Thought Experiments
The Problem of Evil: Why Is There Suffering If God Is Good?
Thought Experiments
Quantum Suicide: Does Many-Worlds Mean You Never Die?
Thought Experiments
Quaddition: Have I Really Been Doing Addition All Along?
Thought Experiments
Russell's Teapot: Is Being Unfalsifiable a Reason to Believe?
Thought Experiments
Solipsism: Is My Own Mind the Only Thing I Can Be Sure Of?
Thought Experiments
The Split Brain: Two Consciousnesses Sharing One Person?
Thought Experiments
The Survival Lottery: Kill One to Save Two, and Why We Refuse
Thought Experiments
If a Tree Falls With Nobody There, Does It Make a Sound?
Thought Experiments
The Turing Test: If a Machine Passes as Human, Is It Thinking?
Thought Experiments
Twin Earth: Putnam's Claim That Meanings Ain't in the Head
Thought Experiments
The Utility Monster: Must We Feed the Creature That Enjoys Most?
Paradoxes
Polchinski's Paradox: The Billiard Ball That Deflects Itself
Paradoxes
The Predestination Paradox: Preventing It Is What Caused It
Paradoxes
The Ellsberg Paradox: Why People Hate Unknown Odds
Paradoxes
Newcomb's Paradox: Take Both Boxes, or Only One?
Thought Experiments
What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Nagel's Thought Experiment
Thought Experiments
Boltzmann Brain — You May Be a Brain Formed by Chance
Thought Experiments
Brain in a Vat — Can You Prove You See the Real World?
Thought Experiments
Descartes' Evil Demon — What Survives Total Doubt?
Thought Experiments
The Chinese Room — Does AI Truly Understand Anything?
Thought Experiments
Einstein's Elevator — The Equivalence Principle
Thought Experiments
The Experience Machine — Would You Plug into Happiness?
Thought Experiments
Laplace's Demon — Is the Future Already Fixed?
Thought Experiments
Famous Thought Experiments — The Complete List & Guide
Thought Experiments
Mary's Room — Does Knowing the Facts Equal Seeing?
Thought Experiments
Philosophical Zombie — A Copy Lacking Consciousness
Thought Experiments
The Ring of Gyges — Would You Stay Just If Invisible?
Thought Experiments
The Simulation Argument — Is Our Universe a Simulation?
Thought Experiments
The Teletransporter — Is the Rebuilt Person Still You?
Thought Experiments
The Trolley Problem — Sacrifice One to Save Five?
Thought Experiments
The Veil of Ignorance — Rawls on a Just Society
Thought Experiments
The Violinist — How Far Does the Duty to Save Others Go?
Paradoxes
Achilles and the Tortoise: Zeno's Race Paradox
Paradoxes
The Bootstrap Paradox: Information With No Origin
Paradoxes
The Deterrence Paradox: Weapons Built Never to Be Used
Paradoxes
The Garage Paradox: Can a Long Car Fit a Short Garage?
Paradoxes
The Grandfather Paradox: Kill Your Own Grandfather?
Paradoxes
Hilbert's Hotel: A Full Hotel With Room for One More
Paradoxes
World Paradoxes: The Complete List, Explained
Paradoxes
Maxwell's Demon: Can a Demon Create Energy From Nothing?
Paradoxes
The Omnipotence Paradox: A Stone Too Heavy for God?
Paradoxes
Schrödinger's Cat — Alive and Dead at the Same Time
Paradoxes
The Ship of Theseus: Replace Every Part, Same Ship?
Paradoxes
The Sleeping Beauty Problem: Is It 1/2 or 1/3?
Paradoxes
The Swampman: Is a Perfect Copy the Same Person?
Paradoxes
Thomson's Lamp: On or Off After Infinite Switches?
Paradoxes
The Three Prisoners Problem: Does News Change the Odds?
Paradoxes
The Two Children Problem: Why 'At Least One Boy' Matters
Paradoxes
The Surprise Exam Paradox: An Impossible Announcement
Paradoxes