8 Provocative Thought Experiments

Maybe the most common way most of us have engaged with philosophic ideas is through some sort of thought experiment. Two of the most well known and common examples are the Ship of Theseus and what has come to be known as the ‘Trolley Problem’. The first asks you to consider whether a ship, replaced plank by plank overtime, is actually the same ship once the transition has been completed while the second asks you to decide whether you would switch the route of a train from a set of tracks full of people to a set of tracks with only a single person on it. Neither question has an easy answers, or even a right answer, and neither is really about the surface subject. The Ship of Theseus helps us to discern our own criteria for what makes something ‘itself’ while the trolley problem forces us to consider our views on morality and the degree of our utilitarianism. The below eight thought experiments present different problems and scenarios while hopefully provoking a similar degree of introspection. Enjoy.

1. Evil God Challenge

What if God was evil? This is the question posed by the ‘Evil God Challenge’, a thought experiment put forth by numerous philosophers over the years, and one that has gnawed at people’s minds ever since. The challenge essential boils down to the idea that there is no reason to believe that God has anymore likelihood of being all good than all evil. Devoted followers of a particular religion may look to their holy texts and religious traditions to refute this claim, but someone arguing the opposite side could easily just say that these people are being lied to and led astray by the all-evil, or omnimalevolent, god and they would be hard pressed to refute the claim. The argument hinges on the same double sided coin. Believers in an all-evil god can point to the horrors of the world and say ‘How could an all-good being let this happen!?’ while those in the all-good camp can say, ‘Well what about the obvious instances of good in the world? How could that happen with an all-evil god?’ There is no answer to this endless, and largely pointless, debate. All it is good for is to test just how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the idea of an all powerful being creating and influencing the world around you.