Preview

Robert Nozick The Experience Machine

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
289 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Robert Nozick The Experience Machine
“The Experience Machine”
“The Experience Machine” is a thought experiment by Robert Nozick that imagines a machine that could give people whatever desirable or pleasurable experiences individuals could want. It would stimulate the person’s brain to cause pleasurable experiences that the subject could not distinguish from those apart from the machine. Hedonism is the idea that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life. As a hedonist, one tries to maximize net pleasure. A consideration of the experience machine shows that hedonism is flawed. According to hedonism, pleasure is the only thing humans seek. People should not consider the experience machine because it would bring pleasure all of the time. If people were given

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Bwvw Study Guide

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Hedonism- Defines pleasure and pain according to human condition. (social condition) Ex. Pursuit of pleasure, comfort, safety and security in human terms. All struggle and pain is defined as evil. Delayed gratification is…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    module 19

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Pleasure principle - the way in which the id seeks immediate gratification of a biological drive…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Experience Machine,” Robert Nozick expresses his belief that most people would not want to “plug in” to an experience machine. He defines an experience machine as a machine that helps you to see and feel the experiences you want, even though they are far from reality. If I were given the opportunity to plug in to this experience machine, I would choose not to. Nozick states that “first, we want to do certain things, and not just have the experience of doing them” (28). This statement is very true to me. Why would I want to miss out on doing the things I want to experience most in life by letting a machine just make me think that I’m doing these things? It wouldn’t really mean anything to me if I couldn’t actually experience things in…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Matrix Movie Essay

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Nozick uses the experience machine as a challenge to theories which hold that pleasurable mental…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the introduction to The Hedonism Handbook, the author Michael Flocker, tries to convey that the assumption: “If you avoid all things pleasurable, you will live a long and happy life,” is a fallacy- that the reasons for this assumption are wrong. He states that working every day, steering clear of anything that many be construed as something pleasurable, is something that this generation has adopted as being ‘happy.’ However, his argument that it is okay to seek pleasure and that we as a society have deemed it as wrong is not as sound as he tries to argue. We do not all feel happiness just from seeking pleasure. This may be effective in some instances, but people are not…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pleasures and pain contribute in determining the classification of one’s actions. In Mill’s Utilitarianism, he examines what determines an action to be considered right or wrong, his own version of the hedonistic utilitarianism argument. He claims that these qualities, including the quantity, are an important factor in determining, when included in the consequences, the criteria of an action. The consequences are significant in determining the results of one’s actions.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pleasure is stagnant which according to the belief of the status quo means life never improves so the idea of the good life being based on pleasure is again…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nozick argues that the third limit of happiness is reality. He claims that you cannot be truly happy unless your happiness is connected to reality. He uses the example of an “experience machine” to prove his conclusion. If only inner feelings matter, the experience is delusional and not linked to reality. If outside influences matter, the experience connects to reality. Nozick says that within this experience machine you can have any experience you desire, but it would not make you truly happy because it is not an actual experience that is happening. Nozick’s reality principle…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yes, because, assuming that I have choice over the experiences put forth by Nozick’s “Experience Machine,” the possibilities of experiencing the simulations, of any kind, is limited only by my imagination. Another plus to connecting to Nozick’s “Experience Machine” is that any kind of harm or pain I receive during my experiences will be limited to psychological damage, at best; my body would remain out of harm’s way. This would allow me to pursue anything and everything deemed physically impossible for me in the real world. This thought-experiment shows us that a person is able to identify oneself as self, majorly in the light of their experiences. It also can tell us what people would actually like to do in their life, if they weren’t…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    All of the pleasures that you experience in the machine are equal to what you would feel in reality, without the socio-economic, physical, and emotional struggles of reality. The experience machine can provide the user any experience, so that the user has complete pleasure within their grasp. In this experiment, Nozick presents you with a choice: continue your life in your current reality, or plug into this machine and live your desired reality. Nozick’s argument then, is if hedonism were true, then the…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hedonic Treadmill Theory

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The psychologists who wrote this article hypothesized that there were five main flaws with the hedonic treadmill theory that needed to be revised before the theory could be excepted. These flaws where as follows: first, individuals set points are not hedonically neutral, in other words, people could be more set towards the happy or sad side; second, people have different set points that they go to based on their temperaments; third, one person may have multiple happiness set points; fourth, well being set points can change under certain conditions; and fifth, individuals vary in their…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gilgamesh Hedonism

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Pleasure and pain are the base most of the human experience. Ideologies comment, usually auxiliary to the main tenets, on pleasure and pain. Hedonism is the foremost ideology that examines this directly, pain and pleasure form the foundation of it. Hedonism is divided into two broad…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Stuart Mill argues in Utilitarianism that higher pleasures are unique to human beings. Higher pleasures are those pleasures that require some minimum of cognitive capacities to enjoy. More specifically, higher pleasures are intellectual pleasures while lower pleasures are sensual pleasures. Mill argues that animals are not capable of experiencing higher pleasures because animals are not aware of their higher facilities; animals lack the conscious ability to be curious, to achieve a sense of self-worth from volunteering, or to hold a deep and intellectual conversation. Mill successfully argues in Utilitarianism that higher pleasures are not only distinct and unique to human beings, but are also more desirable and valuable than lower pleasures because human beings have higher facilities for happiness. “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig dissatisfied,” (pg 18.) Mill uses this example because human beings have experienced both higher and lower pleasures, and would not willingly switch from a life of higher pleasures to a life of lower pleasures. Through controlled experiences, Griffen and Speck argue in New Evidence of Animal Consciousness that animals do possess some form of primary consciousness enabling them to experience these lower pleasures that Mill describes. Intellectual pleasures may be unique to humans, but sensual pleasures are now being examined and documented in animals.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Allport’s most distinctive and controversial concept is his theory of functional autonomy, it is Allport’s explanation for the myriad human motives that seemingly are not accounted for by hedonistic or drive reduction principles, which holds that some (but not all) human motives are functionally independent from the original motive responsible for a…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pleasure Gardens

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages

    If we observe everyone around us, we will see a virtually endless pursuit of fun and pleasure. As we get older, we immerse ourselves with commitments and responsibilities. But ultimately, the world is filled with people like us, seeking happiness, pleasures and desires. The word pleasure has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Having desires is not sin, it is something one is obligated to face simply by virtue of being human. Yet we restrain ourselves from pleasure and desires we should never have to curb, simply because we care too much about how people perceive us. Though, it is not something we can escape. In fact, it is essential for the well-being of a person. Rather than to resolve moral…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays