Abstractly speaking, counterfactuals, thought experiments, and scientific models seem to be utterly different phenomena. First, counterfactuals are those conditionals whose antecedents are false, for they describe situations that are merely possible, or even impossible. Second, thought experiments are mental experiments performed both in philosophy and in natural sciences that, instead of relying on concrete actual procedures ultimately grounded upon observations, merely rely on hypothetical considerations. And third, …
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