"Thought Experiments: When Science is Born"

2022/05/16

There were many twists and turns before this book was published. My family home was originally a ryokan (inn) in Izu, and I grew up there, but I decided to become a scholar rather than take over the family business. I earned my degree in theoretical physics about 40 years ago. However, my father passed away around the same time, and I ended up working in the ryokan business to pay off its debts... Later, I obtained a position at a newly established university, but my path as a scholar was far from smooth, and the final blow was a fire at the ryokan 10 years ago. My collection of 30,000 books turned to ash and I lost everything, but in that same year, my first book on "thought experiments" was published by Kagaku-Dojin, and that book led to the creation of this one.

Unlike my previous work, I spent the first half of this book explaining what thought experiments are, how to conduct them, and the characteristics of a good thought experiment. One of the spirits of modern science is the idea that there are laws in the world. Starting from the position and significance of actual experiments within scientific inquiry, I organized the act of empirical verification using the concept of the hypothetico-deductive method. This book is written from the perspective that a thought experiment is something accomplished solely through logical reasoning in the mind. By demonstrating experiments in extreme conditions through operational procedures that feel visual, without precise calculations, one examines the validity of laws, principles, and hypotheses. I also pay attention to the differences from similar methods like simulations.

In the second half, I divided the chapters based on the purpose of the thought experiments and explained actual examples, mainly regarding physics thought experiments, by following the structure of the hypothetico-deductive method.

In this book, I was unable to address the logic of discovery—how hypotheses are conceived in the first place—which precedes the hypothetico-deductive method (the logic of verification), so that remains a task for the future. Thought experiments in natural science are typical of the ways of thinking, perspectives, and methods of persuasion in the various sciences that are descendants of modern science. I believe that "learning is one" across the humanities and sciences, and I think the subject of thought experiments is a direct manifestation of that. This book also includes reflections on thought experiments in the humanities, so I would be pleased if you could take note of that.

"Thought Experiments: When Science is Born"

Yutaka Shimba

Kodansha Blue Backs

248 pages, 1,100 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.