Thought experiments are imaginary situations constructed to help clarify some important points, distinctions or ways of thinking about a problem. The situations can be quite fantastic and thus cannot actually be set up for scientific experiment. At first glance a thought experiment might seem pointless and even silly. But philosophers are not the only ones who employ thought experiments to help them grapple with a problem. The fact that physicists such as Newton and Einstein have used thought experiments to guide their thinking while constructing their successful theories should give us some reason to consider the thought experiment more seriously. Thus, it is neither a fair nor useful criticism of a thought experiment to just complain that the situation imagined could never arise. You will need to discover the argument in a thought experiment and understand the point it is intended to make in order to evaluate it.
