Preface; Revisions Made; Summary of Contents; Chapter 1-Introduction; Chapter 2-Galileo (First Case Study); Chapter 3-The Ship of Theseus (Second Case Study); Chapter 4-Personal Identity (Third Case Study); Chapter 5-Conclusion; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 1. 1 Exceptional Cases; 1. 1. 1Characterization of "Exceptional Case"; 1. 1. 1. 1 Exceptional Cases in Theories with Privileged Characteristics; 1.

1. 1. 2 Exceptional Cases in Theories without Privileged Characteristcs; 1. 1. 2 Ways of Accounting for Exceptional Cases; 1. 1. 3 Patterns of Accounting; 1. 1.

4 Application to the Question at Hand; 1. 2 Imaginary Cases; 1. 3 Thought Experiments; 1. 3. 1 What is a Thought Experiment?; 1. 3. 2 The Tripartite Structure of Thought Experiments; 1. 3.

3 Three Sorts of Thought Experiments; 1. 4 Appendix to Chapter 1; 2. Galileo; 2. 1 Argumentative Reconstruction; 2. 1. 1 The Elimination Thesis; 2. 1. 2 Clarification of Terminology; 2.

1. 3 The Negative Argument and the Positive Argument; 2. 1. 4 The Dispensability Thesis and the Derivativity Thesis; 2. 2 Galileo's Thought Experiment and its Reconstruction; 2. 2. 1 Galileo's Thought Experiment; 2. 2.

2 Reconstruction of the Galileo Case; 2. 2. 3 Four Ways out for the Aristtelian; 2. 2. 4 What the Reconstruction Misses; 2. 3 Denying the Dispensability and Derivativity Theses; 2. 3. 1 Rejecting Reconstruction: What the Thought Experiment Does; 2.

3. 2 rejecting the Positive Argument: What Makes these Beliefs New?; 2. 3. 3 Rejecting the Negative Argument: What Makes these Beliefs Knowledge?; 2. 3. 4 Constructivism and the Contrast with Norton and Brown; 2. 4 Conclusion; 3. Theseus; 3.

1 Conceptual Thought Experiments; 3. 2 The Story; 3. 3 The Puzzle; 3. 4 Is the Ship of Theseus an Exceptional Case?; 3. 4. 1 Automatic and Specially-Secured Identity; 3. 4. 2 Organisms, Artifacts, and Exceptional Cases; 3.

5 Attempts to Dissolve the Problem; 3. 5. 1 Van Inwagen; 3. 5. 1. 1 Identity Under a Sortal; 3. 5. 1.

2 Summary; 3. 5. 2 Parfit; 3. 6 Attempts to Solve the Problem; 3. 6. 1 A Traditional Solution: Hirsch; 3. 6. 2 A Meta-solution: Nozick; 3.

7 The Proposed Diagnosis; 3. 7. 1 Some Very General Candidate Principles; 3. 7. 2 Remarks on the Candidates; 3. 7. 3 A Messier Puzzle; 3. 7.

4 The Proposed Diagnosis; 4. Personal Identity; 4. 1 Introduction: The Facts of Life; 4. 2 Setting the Stage; 4. 2. 1 A Context for parfit's Argument; 4. 2. 2 What Fission Might Show; 4.

3 The Argument and its Crucial Assumptions; 4. 3. 1 Parfit's Fission Argument; 4. 3. 2 Four Crucial Distinctions; 4. 3. 3 Comments on these Distinctions; 4. 3.

4 The Intrinsicness Premise; 4. 3. 5 Summary; 4. 4 Two Unsuccessful Strategies; 4. 4. 1 An Unsuccefful Attack on the Intrinsicness Premise; 4. 4. 2 An Unsuccessful Defense of the Intrinsicness Premise; 4.

5 Why is the Fission Argument so Compelling?; 4. 5. 1 The Casewise Explanatory Difference Principle; 4. 5. 2 The Casewise Explanatory Principle and the Method of Agreement; 4. 5. 3 Fission and the Method of Agreement; 4. 6 How Absent Features can be Explanatory; 4.

6. 1 Human Bodies and Borrowed Luster; 4. 6. 2 Explaining Valuation; 4. 6. 3 Exceptions, Norms and Local Adaptation; 4. 6. 4 Prudential Concern in a World of Fission; 4.

7 Conclusion; 4. 7. 1 Summary; 4. 7. 2 Larger Lessons; 5. Conclusion; 5. 1 Factive Thought Experiments: Galileo; 5. 2 Conceptual Thought Experiments: The Ship of Theseus; 5.

3 Valuational Thought Experiments: Personal Identity; 6. Bibliographies; 6. 1 Bibliography of Works Cited; 6. 2 Bibliography on Galileo, Experiment and Thought Experiment; 6. 3 Bibliography on Personal Identity and Identity; 6. 4 Bibliography on Thought Experiment and Experiment; Index.