ABSTRACT
There is no (medieval) Arabic term or phrase for “thought experiment.” Be that as it may, medieval philosophers and scientists working in Arabic both concretely employed thought experiments in their philosophies and discussed their merits and demerits abstractly. Indeed, it would seem that thought experiments truly captured the imagination of medieval thinkers in the Muslim world, who left behind a significant body of examples and analyses of such experiments. What follows makes no pretense to being a complete history of that body of work. Instead, this study focuses primarily, although by no means exclusively, on thought experiments as they are used and discussed in Ibn Sīnā (980–1037), the Avicenna of Latin fame. Along the way, however, this study also touches on other notable figures and their uses and thoughts about thought experiments. These figures include the famed medieval Arabic optician Ibn al-Haytham (965–1040, Lt. Alhazen) and the renowned Muslim theologian Abū Ḥamid al-Ghazālī (1058–1111).
