Wiltsche Harald A
Department for Culture and Communication, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
Synthese. 2021;198(4):3675-3698. doi: 10.1007/s11229-019-02306-6. Epub 2019 Jul 15.
The aim of this paper is to show that scientific thought experiments and works of science fiction are highly suitable tools for facilitating and increasing understanding of science. After comparing one of Einstein's most famous thought experiments with the science fiction novel "The Forever War", I shall argue that both proceed similarly in making some of the more outlandish consequences of special relativity theory intelligible. However, as I will also point out, understanding in thought experiments and understanding in science fiction differ in one important respect: While the former aim at what I shall call "physical understanding", science fiction novels typically have "existential understanding" as their target.
本文的目的是表明，科学思想实验和科幻作品是促进和加深对科学理解的高度合适的工具。在将爱因斯坦最著名的思想实验之一与科幻小说《永恒的战争》进行比较之后，我将论证，两者在使狭义相对论的一些更离奇的后果变得易懂方面的进展相似。然而，正如我也将指出的，思想实验中的理解和科幻作品中的理解在一个重要方面有所不同：前者旨在达到我所称的“物理理解”，而科幻小说通常以“存在理解”为目标。
