Noun
thought experiment (plural thought experiments)
(physics, philosophy) An attempt to solve a problem using the power of human imagination.
Everyone's heard of Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment. You put a cat in a box with a bottle of poison, which many people would suggest is about as far as you need to go. Terry Pratchett
The utility of a thought experiment is inversely proportional to the size of its departures from reality. Daniel Dennett
Experience teaches...that there is no such thing as a thought experiment so clearly presented that no philosopher can misinterpret it... Daniel Dennett
A thought experiment courtesy of the Stoics. If you are tired of everything you possess, imagine that you have lost all these things. Jenny Offill