The Experience Machine By Nozick

A dreamlike existence. Hick goes on to explain that in a perfect pleasure world there wouldn't be any science possible (laws of nature). In a permanent pleasure paradise, no ethics would be possible (no virtues or vices). In a permanent pleasure paradise no spiritual growth would be possible. The consequences of this world would be far fetching. An example would be that no one could injure themselves or others. The "murderer's knife would turn to paper or his bullets to thin air; the bank safe, robbed of a million dollars, would miraculously become filled with another million dollars" as Hick put it. Deceit, fraud, treason, and conspiracy would somehow not be in the fabric of society. A mountain climber would float harmlessly to the ground when they slip and fall. A reckless driver never meets with disaster. There would be no need to work because there would be no consequences. There would be no need for the comforting of others during a disaster because there would be none. The laws of nature such as gravity would have to operate sometimes in this world and sometimes not. Sometimes an object shall be hard and others they shall be hard. "Life in this world would become like a dream in which, delightfully but aimlessly, we would float and drift at ease". In this hedonistic paradise there could be no wrong or right decisions because there would be no consequence or benefit of these actions. There is no room for spiritual growth because there is no need for it in this

'The experience machine' is one of Nozick’s best-known arguments . The experience machine is a thought experiment which posits the existence of a device that can give its user any experience desired. When one placed in an 'experience machine', it can program any experience, such as traveling to the moon. The experience machine is supposed to allow someone to have all and any of the pleasures in the world. However, Nozick states that even though if such machine exits no one would use it, which shows that there are more important things than pleasure.

As humans we are constantly in search of understanding the balance between what feels good and what is right. Humans try to take full advantage of experiencing pleasure to its fullest potential. Hedonism claims that pleasure is the highest and only source of essential significance. If the notion of hedonism is truthful, happiness is directly correlated with pleasure. Robert Nozick presented the philosophical world with his though experiment, “The Experience Machine” in order to dispute the existence and validity of hedonism. Nozick’s thought experiment poses the question of whether or not humans would plug into a machine which produces any desired experience. Nozick weakens the notion of hedonism through his thought experiment, claiming

Joel Kupperman in Six Myths about the Good Life: Thinking About What Has Value evaluates that humans as a whole want more comfort and pleasure in life as he it “may represent a tendency that is wired into normal human nature” (Kupperman 1). Through the explanation of pleasure as well as its arguable counterpart, suffering and the discussion of their values in addition to the counterargument of hedonic treadmill, Kupperman’s views about the role of pleasure in living a good life can be strongly supported and evaluated.

The desire satisfaction theory accommodates the thought which hedonism does not accommodate. According to the desire satisfaction theory, our lives go better when the world actually is a certain way, and doesn’t merely appear to be a certain way. An individual experiences pleasure when the desires are satisfied but it is not a guarantee that the desires cause pleasure.

This article offers strategies for teachers to use to help their most challenging students with behavioral issues. One of the authors is a child psychiatrist who works with at-risk children and the other is a behavior analyst and special educator. Their approach is based on the premise that educators can only control certain elements in the classroom and their own behavior when it comes to students with challenging behavior. The created the acronym FAIR:”F is for understanding the function of the behavior, A is for accommodations, I is for interaction strategies, and R is for responses” (2). The function of behavior can include escaping from something, obtaining a tangible thing, engaging in sensory activities, and getting attention. These functions are the benefits the student gets from the behavior. The escape motivated behavior happens when a student tries to avoid a “task, demand, situation, or person” (3). The tangible behavior occurs when the student wants to get objects like money or feed or something else they want. Sensory behavior happens when a student tries to get the attention of an adult or classmate. This can occur when the student is “bellergent, screaming, or continually interrupting the teacher” (3). Negative attention can reinforce attention-seeking behavior because it is better than nothing and the student may prefer it because it is more predictable than positive attention. Taking ABC

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate my experiential learning of personal and social adjustments when confronted with life-changing events and the mechanisms utilized to effectively cope from traumatic experiences. The components supporting this piece include: confronting the problem, learning to adapt and cope, cultivating self-worth, the importance of a support system and over time change influencers. To support my understanding of personal and social adjustments, I will use the content of this paper to speak as evidence of my experiential learning derived from confronting a long-term spiritual abuse situation and process of unraveling and coping from its affects.

Imagine a world where a person could experience everything they have ever wanted in the world. The individual would have the most enjoyable and ideal life possible. It would be their version of the perfect life. Robert Nozick, in Philosophical Explanations, describes the experience machine. This is a hypothetical machine that stimulates the brain into feeling like it is experiencing a realistic life, these experiences are all the events that one has ever dreamed of in their ideal life, and the machine works by connecting one’s brain to electrodes while their body remains motionless. Envision a person sitting in a chair as a ‘movie’ scrolls in their head. However, this time, the movie lasts forever because one cannot simply ‘unplug’ from the experience machine. Once an individual is connected, they cannot get out. With the opportunity to walk in a universe of one’s happiest life sparks the question; would they get into the machine?

As a result of the euphio machine, the narrator states, “Happiness,’ I told her.’ Incomparable, continuous happiness—happiness by the kilowatt” (Vonnegut 202). Instead of striving for genuine happiness, the characters are persuaded to buy a machine that sends them into a state of oblivion, with little encouragement they are convinced. With that being said, it is evident that they are desperate for “happiness,” the repetition of the word further emphasizes the extent that they are willing to go to to find it. When individuals are desperate to find a few moments of bliss they will do anything they can, thus demonstrating the amount of consideration they have and once again ultimately leading to bigger

Nagel provides a complete a thorough argument against the hedonist position by explaining that one can be harmed without suffering, one can suffer post-mortem, and it is not the bad nor the good momentary conscious experiences that judge our lives but our projects, goals, ambitions, history, and possibility.

In part one of our book, “The Good Life,” we studied five different philosopher’s viewpoints on what is needed in order for a person to have a good, fulfilling life. They all included the concepts of pleasure and happiness to some extent in their theories, but they all approached the ideas in different ways. The two hedonists we studied, Epicurus and John Stuart Mill, place heavy emphasis on the importance of pleasure. They both believe that pleasure is a necessity in the ideal life. Jean Kazez agreed with their viewpoints in her theory and said that happiness was a necessity for a good life. Epicurus and Mill also argue that there is nothing else that we ultimately desire beyond pleasure and that it is an intrinsic good.

Robert Nozick is a philosopher who seeks to disprove the utilitarian notion of hedonism through a thought experiment that he has entitles “The Experience Machine” (Nozick 646). I will first explain the concept of utilitarianism and hedonism, then the experience machine before I give a reply about the inclusion of a third category of pleasure which I have called “meta-pleasure”. Finally, I will show how technology may be disproving the entire experience machine thought experiment altogether.

This distinctive book called, “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, is one of very few exquisite readings I’ve completed so far. Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist in Princeton University, and due to his research, he won a Nobel Prize in 2002 in economics. In the beginning of his book, he speaks of our cognitive System 1 and System 2 ways of thinking. System 1 generates feelings, impressions, and memory. It is very instinctive, automatic, and is considered quick thinking. System 2 on the other hand, is alert during complex problem solving, while dealing with facts and knowledge, and is attentive while working with difficult calculations. For example, a problem such as 24 x 13, this takes more time and knowledge to figure out (System 2), rather then recognizing an emotion from face expressions (System 1). When System 1 is strained, your System 2 steps in to help you process through that specific instant. Now aside from the psychological portion of this book, Mr. Kahneman divulges about a consolidated economic analysis with elemental intuitions from the psychological perspective; such as, luck and skill, overconfidence, risks in the stock market, factors of success and the decision making process. This book is overall concluded with the understanding of behavioral economics, which is the social and cognitive components on economic decisions that are defined by individuals and have consequences that reflect from making those decisions and taking those risks.

Thinking, fast and slow written by an empirical researcher and psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, The book tells us how we can afford to think while we’re not even paying attention. It offers us the paths to better understanding ourselves, how to think automatically and common, instead of difficult and rare.

Jeremy Bentham’s quantitative hedonism is a viewpoint that quantity, intensity, and duration of pleasures determines the value of that pleasure. Bentham argues that happiness is the ultimate good. He argues that the definition of happiness is pleasure accompanied by an avoidance of pain. Jeremy Bentham believed that creating the greatest combined happiness was the key to correct moral behavior.