ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at three issues. It investigates the identity conditions of thought experiment: under which conditions does a methodological device count as thought experiment and when should we regard a device as something else, even if it resembles thought experiment? Second, it inquires where and when thought experiment is practised: in which philosophical and scientific discourses does the practice of thought experiment occur? Third, it considers the conditions under which thought experiment carries weight: in which contexts and on which presuppositions does thought experiment acquire evidential significance, and where is it evidentially inert? The aim is to problematize the category of thought experiment and its application in different historical and cultural contexts.
