Ethical Theories Of Hedonism

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Ethical theories attempt to prescribe concepts on how to live a ‘good life’. There are several ethical theories but hedonism is one of the most known because it has been around for many years. In general, hedonism focuses on happiness and states that the happier one is, the better their life is. Like almost all theories, hedonism has several criticisms, with “the experience machine” being an important one. Robert Nozick uses “the experience machine” to justify that happiness is not the only thing that matters to people. Hedonism is proven to be inaccurate due to Nozick’s argument and example of “The Experience Machine”.
Hedonism comes from the Greek word hedone which means pleasure. Hedonism states that a life is good only to the extent that …show more content…

Nozick uses “the experience machine” to prove this. This imaginary machine is one that, once entered, allows us to live our happiest life without actually experiencing it in real life. This machine allows for a person to enter information and personalize their happiest life, once this information is entered, they will enter the machine and electrodes will be connected to their brain. Once they are connected to the machine, they will not be able to get out and they will not be aware that they are not actually living their lives out in reality (Shafer-Landau …show more content…

The argument from autonomy states that people rather have autonomy and make their own mistakes rather than not have it and not make any mistakes. In “the experience machine”, people stated that they would rather live their life’s outside of the machine even knowing that they would have to suffer at times. According to this theory, if happiness and unhappiness are the only thing that determine the quality of a life, you can only be harmed because something saddens you. This is not a valid argument because there are things that can harm people without making them sad. Hedonism also does not take into consideration that actions that make an individual happy may lead to suffering. For example, eating an unhealthy diet all your life because it makes you happy will cause you to become ill and suffer and committing a crime that makes you happy will cause you to serve time in prison which will make you unhappy.
Hedonism is the ethical theory that states that a life is good only to the extent that it is filled with pleasure and free from pain. Harvard philosopher, Robert Nozick’s uses “the experience machine” to justify his argument that happiness may be necessary but that it is not sufficient in living a ‘good’ life. “The experience machine” is an imaginary scenario where people would be able to be connected to a preprogramed machine and would experience living a good life without actually living it in

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