THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS: THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEM

Thought experiments in physics involve epistemological questions such as: How can we learn about the world through merely thinking about imagined scenarios? Realist and empiricist philosophers face that question disregarding that such experiments are about idealized systems. We try to sustain that thought experiments, because of their very nature, neither provide new knowledge ─confirmed true statements─ nor new empirical data about the physical world. Instead, as Kuhn maintains, their import could improve our conceptual apparatus, allowing a new understanding of the physical world. As a study case, we analyze Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen´s paradox to give support for these claims. The proposed novel topic in this paper is the study of such paradox in the light of Kuhn´s epistemological account of thought experiments.