The selections below are primarily thought experiments through which you can explore the complexities of issues which have occupied philosophers for decades. Try your hand at answering some of the “tough questions” of yesterday and today.

Special thanks to Peg Tittle, author of What If…Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy, and Jack Bowen, author of Dream Weaver: One Boy’s Journey Through the Landscape of Reality, for their contributions to this section.

• Knowledge and Skepticism: Descartes's Wax

• Free Will and Moral Responsibility: Frankfurt's Willing Addict

• Minds and Bodies: Leibniz's Machine

• Personal Identity: Locke's Prince and Cobbler

• God and Faith: Hick's Resurrected People

• Moral Problems: Is it true that, "All's fair in war?"

• Governments and Justice: Rawls's Veil of Ignorance

• Philosophy and the Good Life: Feinberg's Egoist