Mind as Laboratory

One alternative to Hume's image of Mind as a theater is that of a laboratory.  The latter is implicit in Dewey's Experimentalism, and is explicit in the use of 'thought experiments' in contemporary Philosophy.  But, more important, everyday experience is frequently constituted by episodes occurring in a mental laboratory.  These transpire whenever one entertains possible courses of action, from casual, e. g. fantasizing, to rigorous, e. g. careful deliberation.  In the process, one is trying something out, to see how it might feel or whether it is feasible.  So, one clear distinction between the image of Mind as a laboratory, and that of a theater, is that in the former, it is active, while in the latter, passive.