Abstract

Religious notions have long played a role in epistemology. Theological thought experiments, in particular, have been effective in a wide range of situations in the sciences. Some of these are merely picturesque, others have been heuristically important, and still others, as I will argue, have played a role that could be called essential. I will illustrate the difference between heuristic and essential with two examples. One of these stems from the Newton–Leibniz debate over the nature of space and time; the other is a thought experiment of my own constructed with the aim of making a case for a more liberal view of evidence in mathematics.

Highlights

  • Religious notions have long played a role in epistemology

  • Other thought experiments involving God have a different aim: They use the idea of God to tell us something new about the world

  • I am going to discuss two thought experiments where God plays an important or even crucial function. The first of these is the thought experiment that played a role in the Newton–Leibniz debate on the nature of space and time

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Summary

What Newton

What is more more adequately adequately called called “substantivalism”,. “substantivalism”, meaning that time and space are things in their own right, not dependent on anything else. What is more more adequately adequately called called “substantivalism”,. “substantivalism”, meaning that time and space are things in their own right, not dependent on anything else. The meaning that time and space are things in their own right, not dependent on anything else

The picture picture
Newton thought of creation as
We need to explain the difference
Newtona had a big hand
Which against
And the
The problem

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