Evaluation of Nozick's Experience Machine Thought Experiment
Nozick's Experience Machine Thought Experiment explores the choice between a machine providing endless pleasure experiences and real-life existence. The debate centers on the value of living a fabricated reality versus embracing challenges and uncertainties in the pursuit of genuine fulfillment. While some argue for improved versions of the machine, concerns about the lack of meaning in pure pleasure and the absence of risk suggest that happiness may not be an ideal rational goal. The experiment raises questions about the nature of well-being and the limitations of hedonism.
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Does Nozicks experience machine thought experiment and the promise of pure hedonism tempt you as a rational action? Barry Morgan Psych-O-Trend
A rational action is normative i.e. it is how one ought to act given practical reasons. it requires: A rationally held belief linked to: A rational goal together forming a rational intention to act Psych-O-Trend
Hedonism Is the notion we ought to strive for the goal or final value of: Happiness or Pleasure (either our own or that of others) Psych-O-Trend
Nozicks Experience Machine A perfectly designed machine that gives whatever pleasurable experiences you could ever want. Once in the machine it is impossible to distinguish between the experience inside and that outside the machine He then asks would you commit to the machine rather than real life? Nozick argues you d not enter because: We want to do not just experience We want to be not just exist We want a real reality not just one we fabricate Psych-O-Trend
Experimental philosophy emerging paradigm in philosophy generates empirical evidence but : risk of bias e.g. Imaginative resistance Maintenance of status quo in addition: Who should be experimented upon? the professional philosopher? or the lay-person acting with intuition? Psych-O-Trend
Weijers argues a new improved experience machine experiment He claims status quo bias is removed He seeks qualitative explanations of the binary yes/no answer Whilst not conclusive regarding internalised notions of well being Overall participants thought a stranger ought to plug in Psych-O-Trend
Whilst Weijers improves upon Nozick by removing some bias, I still argue the goal of the experiment i.e. happiness is flawed as a rational goal because: The certainty of pleasure removes the excitement of risk or uncertainty Pleasure is meaningless in isolation it must be measured against misery It is a one off choice committing to the machine for ever Psych-O-Trend
So will you take the plunge and plug in? Or . Psych-O-Trend
..stay with the Status Quo yourselves, but take the Weijers option and recommend I get down deeper and down .. but would you if you could join me for a day, a week, a month ..? Thanks for listening. Any Questions bjm@psych-o-trend.com Psych-O-Trend
References Barber, A. (2014) Reason in Action , The Open University, Milton Keynes. De Brigard,F. (2014 [2010]) Reading 2: De Brigard s empirical case against Nozick s argument in Barber,A. (ed) Reason in Action , The Open University, Milton Keynes pp 147-153 Kauppinen,A. (2016) Book 3: Reason in Action. Kauppinen on Nozick s experience machine ,A333 Key questions in philosophy. The Open University [Online] Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1727802/mod_resource/content/1/ebook_a33 3_book3_kauppinen_transcript_l3.pdf (accessed 7 January 2017). Nozick,R. (2014 [1974]) Reading 1: Nozick and the experience machine in Barber,A. (ed) Reason in Action , The Open University, Milton Keynes pp 145-146 Weijers, D. 2014. Nozick's experience machine is dead, long live the experience machine! Philosophical Psychology,27(4), pp.513-535. [Online] Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/09515089.2012.75 7889?needAccess=true (Accessed 7 January 2017) Woollard,F. (2016) Book 3: Reason in Action. Woollard on intuitions in moral philosophy ,A333 Key questions in philosophy. The Open University [Online] Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1727801/mod_resource/content/1/ebook_a33 3_book3_woollard_transcript_l3.pdf (accessed 7 January 2017). Psych-O-Trend
