Robert Nozick's Experience Machine

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Hedonism is the philosophy that actions are done solely to produce the greatest amount of pleasure, while trying to avoid pain at all costs. There are some who follow the idea of hedonism, but there are many who reject it. Robert Nozick objects hedonism, and uses the example of an experience machine to support his thought. Briefly, the experience machine is a made up idea that a hedonist would abide by, but a regular person would see the downfalls of only having pleasure. A hedonist is one who is in pursuit of only pleasure, and nothing else. They try and avoid pain, or any unenjoyable actions, or consequences and they feel that pleasure is the one and only intrinsic good. I feel that Nozick's experience machine is a valid objection to hedonism, …show more content…

You are connected to a machine from your brain so that you would think only your most pleasured thoughts, such as living on an island with an unlimited amount of money, or driving that dream car you always desired. One is able to experience his most admired pleasures on how they "feel from the inside." These would only be thoughts, because in reality you are still stuck to a machine. The question is if you should plug into this machine for life by preprogramming your life experiences? Many people think it will be foolish to plug in, because there's more to life than just pleasure, but a hedonist would want to plug into the machine. Most people desire things other than merely pleasure. People may want to try out this machine for a little bit, but they wouldn't want to stay in it forever. By plugging into this machine, we frustrate some of our desires. If you want to plug into the machine, this means that pleasure is the only thing that you desire, and if you don't want to plug in to the experience machine, then there other things besides pleasure that matter to you. We have local desires, global desires, and objective desires that all need to be fulfilled, which is why most people would choose not to live in the experience machine

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