ABSTRACT
Hardly any discussion about thought experiments (TEs) takes place without mention of the imagination. Whether conceived of as a colourful addendum to an underlying argument (Norton 1991; see Brendel this volume), the faculty of perception of a Platonic realm (Brown 2011), or the location of design for real experiments (Buzzoni 2013), the imagination is understood to be a characteristic component in the practice of thought experimenting. What is less obvious is what is meant by “the imagination.” If one surveys the now sizable literature on the philosophy of TEs one could be forgiven for suspecting that in fact many of these authors mean quite different things, despite all employing the same term. In striking contrast to the ubiquitously acknowledged and yet mysterious relationship between TEs and the imagination, the relationship between TEs and images (specifically the visual representations that frequently accompany TEs) is both rarely mentioned and considerably less mysterious. With this in mind I will attempt to gain some insight into the imaginative character of TEs through investigating how images can play a role in thought experimenting.
