Nozick's thought experiment is ineffective because it doesn't engage with common-sense moral intuitions. It's a problem that only arises if one is already deeply committed to a specific, extreme utilitarian framework, making it feel absurd and irrelevant to most people.

J.J. Thompson's 'famous violinist' example is judged effective not as a broad defense of abortion, but for its success in making a very narrow point: that the right to life is not absolute, even if one grants personhood.

The famous thought experiment, while popular, proved detrimental to moral psychology and ethics. It narrowed inquiry and promoted a forced, simplistic choice between consequentialist and deontological reasoning, stifling more nuanced understanding of the human mind.

Critics argue moral thought experiments are too unrealistic to be useful. However, their artificiality is a deliberate design choice. By stripping away real-world complexities and extraneous factors, philosophers can focus on whether a single, specific variable is the one making a moral difference in our judgment.

Common thought experiments attacking consequentialism (e.g., a doctor sacrificing one patient for five) are flawed because they ignore the full scope of consequences. A true consequentialist analysis would account for the disastrous societal impacts, such as the erosion of trust in medicine, which would make the act clearly wrong.

The classic thought experiment is deemed ineffective because it doesn't genuinely probe a moral intuition. Instead, it merely restates the argument's premise—that people are only moral for instrumental reasons—packaging a conclusion as a speculative scenario.

The famous Trolley Problem isn't just one scenario. Philosophers create subtle variations, like replacing the act of pushing a person with flipping a switch to drop them through a trapdoor. This isolates variables and reveals that our moral objection isn't just about physical contact, but about intentionally using a person as an instrument to achieve a goal.

Frank Jackson's 'Mary the Color Scientist' is criticized because its central premise—that someone could know 'all the physical facts' about color—is fundamentally inconceivable. This makes it difficult to draw any reliable intuitive conclusions from the scenario.

Thought experiments like the 'River of Drowning Children' suggest strict altruism requires sacrificing your entire life. However, most plausible ethical theories reject this maximal demandingness. They acknowledge that your own well-being, family, and personal projects also hold moral weight and should not be entirely sacrificed.