• A
  • A
  • A
  • АБВ
  • АБВ
  • АБВ
  • A
  • A
  • A
  • A
  • A
Обычная версия сайта
  • RU
  • EN
  • HSE University
  • Publications
  • Book chapter
  • Thought experiments in mathematics
  • RU
  • EN
Расширенный поиск
Высшая школа экономики
Национальный исследовательский университет
Priority areas
  • business informatics
  • economics
  • engineering science
  • humanitarian
  • IT and mathematics
  • law
  • management
  • mathematics
  • sociology
  • state and public administration
by year
  • 2027
  • 2026
  • 2025
  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
  • 2002
  • 2001
  • 2000
  • 1999
  • 1998
  • 1997
  • 1996
  • 1995
  • 1994
  • 1993
  • 1992
  • 1991
  • 1990
  • 1989
  • 1988
  • 1987
  • 1986
  • 1985
  • 1984
  • 1983
  • 1982
  • 1981
  • 1980
  • 1979
  • 1978
  • 1977
  • 1976
  • 1975
  • 1974
  • 1973
  • 1972
  • 1971
  • 1970
  • 1969
  • 1968
  • 1967
  • 1966
  • 1965
  • 1964
  • 1963
  • 1958
  • More
Subject
News
November 5, 2026
Masters Programmes and AI: Shaping the Future of Higher Education
From October 28 to 30, the 17th International Conference on Higher Education, ‘The (Non)Homogeneous Landscape of Higher Education: Institutions, Trajectories, Effects,’ took place at HSE University. Among the key topics discussed at the plenary sessions on the second and third days were the development of master's programmes and the application of AI in the learning process.
November 5, 2026
Forecasting the Future of Science and Technology
The Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies at the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) examines the current state of R&D and analyses emerging trends and their dynamics. This work helps assess the scale of challenges associated with the adoption of new technologies, identify priorities for future research, and inform science and industrial policy. The HSE News Service spoke with Liliana Proskuryakova, Head of the Laboratory, and Alexander Sokolov, Director of the Foresight Centre at ISSEK.
October 30, 2026
‘This Format Turned Each Presentation Into a Collaborative Effort to Assess the Robustness of the Study
On October 16, 2026, HSE ICEF hosted the Eighth International Conference on Applied Economics. Held fully on-site, the conference brought researchers from HSE University, the New Economic School, Wuhan University, and Shandong University together in Moscow. The programme was organised around three overarching themes— ‘Environment, Resources and Policy,’ ‘Migration, Labour, and Communication,’ and ‘Consumption, Behaviour, and Climate—offering an opportunity to see how similar economic mechanisms operate in China, Pakistan, the United States, and Russia.

 

Have you spotted a typo?
Highlight it, click Ctrl+Enter and send us a message. Thank you for your help!

Publications
  • Books
  • Articles
  • Chapters of books
  • Working papers
  • Report a publication
  • Research at HSE

?

Thought experiments in mathematics

P. 257–278.
Irina S., Giaquinto M.

It is not news that we often make discoveries or find reasons for a mathematical proposition by thinking alone. But does any of this thinking count as conducting a thought experiment? The answer to that question is “yes,” but without refinement the question is uninteresting. Suppose you want to know whether the equation [8x + 12y = 6] has a solution in the integers. You might mentally substitute some integer values for the variables and calculate. In that case you would be mentally trying something out, experimenting with particular integer values, in order to test the hypothesis that the equation has no solution in the integers. Not getting a solution the first time, you might repeat the thought experiment with different integer inputs.

Language: English
Keywords: thought experiments

In book

The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments
L., NY: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2017.
Similar publications
Размышления о спасении тонущего ребёнка: эффективный альтруизм и социальные институты
Balashov D., Антиномии 2026 Т. 26 № 1 С. 27–48
The movement of effective altruism, which emerged at the beginning of the 21st century, represents a new form of utilitarian philosophy that has had a significant impact on Anglo-American philosophical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries. A key feature of effective altruism is its emphasis on practicality. The movement positions itself as an entity ...
Added: May 13, 2026
«Вагонетки», «моральные интуиции» и попытка Джошуа Грина обосновать утилитаристскую этику
Balashov D., Этическая мысль 2025 Т. 25 № 1 С. 125–138
One of the most prominent research tools characteristic of the analytical Anglo-Americanmoral philosophy of the second half of the 20th– early 21st centuries was the methodofthought experiment. These experiments allow us to figuratively formulate key issues ofphilosophical ethics. On the one hand, this increased interest in fundamental philosophicalquestions, and, on the other hand, it stimulated ...
Added: July 1, 2025
Моральные интуиции: как революция в нейронауках влияет на этику, политическую философию и политические науки
Balashov D., Полития: Анализ. Хроника. Прогноз 2024 № 4(115) С. 50–67
New methods in neuroscience, which emerged at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, allowed to make a breakthrough in comprehension of the human brain functioning principles, including the situations of ethical choice. The turn to the analysis of moral intuitions was so fruitful that it led to the flourishing of moral psychology, for which moral intuitions became the ...
Added: January 5, 2025
Использование мысленных экспериментов в современной экспериментальной философии
Drozdova D., Рацио.ru 2018 Т. 19 № 1 С. 53–69
Thought experiments are widely used nowadays in science and philosophy. Philosophical thought experiments can be distinguished from those spread in science for their critical and problematizing function. They can be described as fictional situations which are employed in order to criticize our use of philosophical concepts, make analogies, raise new questions, demonstrate limits of our ...
Added: October 24, 2019
Мысленный эксперимент more geometrico
Drozdova D., Эпистемология и философия науки 2016 Т. 49 № 3 С. 43–47
Thought experiments can be used in various ways. A part of them seems to have a special epistemic value: they can give us a new, unknown information about reality. One of the most famous thought experiments of that kind is the thought experiment of Galileo which demonstrates that two bodies of the same kind should ...
Added: February 12, 2017
Обретение формы
Paramonov A. A., Эпистемология и философия науки 2016 Т. 49 № 3 С. 36–42
Author treats an issue on getting a new knowledge from thought experiments. A history of the notion of thought experiment is presented in a few words. Author considers a concept of instinctive knowledge, which Ernst Mach used in his investigations of the thought experiments. He puts a question on about the cultural conditionality of “instinctive ...
Added: September 3, 2016
  • About
  • About
  • Key Figures & Facts
  • Sustainability at HSE University
  • Faculties & Departments
  • International Partnerships
  • Faculty & Staff
  • HSE Buildings
  • HSE University for Persons with Disabilities
  • Public Enquiries
  • Studies
  • Admissions
  • Programme Catalogue
  • Undergraduate
  • Graduate
  • Exchange Programmes
  • Summer University
  • Summer Schools
  • Semester in Moscow
  • Business Internship
  • Research
  • International Laboratories
  • Research Centres
  • Research Projects
  • Monitoring Studies
  • Conferences & Seminars
  • Academic Jobs
  • Yasin (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development
  • Media & Resources
  • Publications by staff
  • HSE Journals
  • Publishing House
  • iq.hse.ru: commentary by HSE experts
  • Library
  • Economic & Social Data Archive
  • Video
  • HSE Repository of Socio-Economic Information
  • HSE1993–2026
  • Contacts
  • Copyright
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map
Edit