Is Thought Experiment Considered an Argument?

The main object of this writing is a survey of concept and role of thought experiment in science. Thought experiment is an innovative instrument that plays an important role in different areas of science such as physics. The most important feature of these experiments is that in absence of any new empirical data, they lead us to new knowledge or to change our opinion about a theory. There are different views about the function of thought experiment. At the beginning of this writing, some examples of thought experiments and their features have been presented. Then, some of the most famous views on thought experiment have been examined. According to Norton's argument, thought experiment is merely an argument which has a form of narrative. Brown's view has a priori and Platonic view on thought experiment and claims that a correct thought experiment can grasp laws of Platonic world. Although the mentioned views criticize Norton's view from different perspectives, all of them have a common point: thought experiment plays an important role in science and is able to provide us new information about the world.