This research project is a subproject of a project on counterfactual reasoning in biology led by Prof. Marcel Weber. It focuses on thought experiments in the sciences, their theoretical function in biology and the epistremic status of the knowledge they provide.

The project starts from the hypothesis that thought experiments, although including narrative aspects which makes them akin to works of fiction, function in the same way as some scientific models do: they display hypothetical situations, abstracting relevant factors, and suggest or bring support to a possible explanation for a particular phenomenon.

I suggest that the function of thought experiments is to help elucidating in which conditions scientific laws and concepts do apply and that the knowledge gained by thought experimenting stems from an epistemic agent's tacit knowledge of theoretical claim's applicability and his/her experience of successful application of these claims.

An account of thought experiments going along these lines should be developed and tested with help of thought experiments in science and then with theoretical models in evolutionary biology. It should thus be possible to better characterize both thought experimenting in science and give insights on the epistemic status of knowledge obtained through theoretical modeling in evolutionary biology.

Swiss National Science Foundation

• Theorien, Modelle und Gesetze der Biologie
• Evolution und Adaptation
• Ökologie und Populationsbiologie