What is more important: happiness or reality, morality and autonomy?
This question is a thought experiment by the philosopher Robert Nozick in order to refute the philosophy of Ethical Hedonism. This theory says that only happiness is necessary for a good life, and it is also sufficient; we do not need anything else. For hedonists happiness is the only intrinsic value, which means that everything else improves our lives only to the extent that it makes us happy. The term of hedonism, comes from the Greek word “hédoné” which means pleasure. According to hedonists, a life is good to the extent that it is filled with pleasure and is free of pain. There are two fundamental kinds of pleasure; the physical pleasure, like having sex, eating, or …show more content…
The book The Fundamentals of Ethics explains this thought as the Argument from False Happiness. It states that, “If hedonism is true, then happiness makes the same contribution to welfare whether it is based on true or false beliefs. Happiness based on false beliefs contributes less to welfare than happiness based on true beliefs. Therefore, hedonism is false.” (Shafer-Landau, 2018, p. 36) Given this argument, imagine this situation. A woman that loves and trusts her husband believes that he has been completely faithful. The husband is cheating on her and will keep doing so, but without her knowledge. If you were that women, would you care if he is lying to you, even if he is the best husband and makes you the happiest woman on earth? If your answer is yes, you are not a hedonist. Hedonists just focus on happiness, whether if it is based on true or false beliefs. It is the same situation in the Experience Machine, it would be happiness based just on an illusion, because in reality you are still stuck to a machine. None of your perfect achievements or desires are true. For example, if you wish to find the cure for cancer and save millions of lives, you would not be saving anybody, or maybe you would, but just in your imagination. It is all fiction. I am definitely not a hedonist, because I feel that enjoyment should not be our only motive for our …show more content…
One of the other things we want from life is to make our own decisions about it. The power to guide our life through our own free choices, even if sometimes costs us our happiness. Autonomous choices don't always lead to happiness. Things can go wrong; we make free choices that can lead to damaged relationships, financial disasters, or missed opportunities. Still, we need only imagine a life without autonomy to see what a tragedy it would be. Saying this we can make another argument against Hedonism. The Argument from Autonomy: “If hedonism is true, then autonomy contributes to a good life only insofar as it makes us happy. Autonomy sometimes directly contributes to a good life, even when it fails to makes us happy. Therefore, hedonism is false.” (Shafer-Landau, 2018, p. 39) For example, what would you choose, a good life where you are happy taking your own decisions, even where you can fail in them, or a perfect life where there’s going to be someone always telling you what to do, what to eat, how to move, where to go? This would be a “perfect” life, they could ask you to take a plane and travel, but all actions would be guided by someone else. It is easy to choose; this proves that humans value autonomy, even if it costs a little bit of their
This question is a thought experiment by the philosopher Robert Nozick in order to refute the philosophy of Ethical Hedonism. This theory says that only happiness is necessary for a good life, and it is also sufficient; we do not need anything else. For hedonists happiness is the only intrinsic value, which means that everything else improves our lives only to the extent that it makes us happy. The term of hedonism, comes from the Greek word “hédoné” which means pleasure. According to hedonists, a life is good to the extent that it is filled with pleasure and is free of pain. There are two fundamental kinds of pleasure; the physical pleasure, like having sex, eating, or …show more content…
The book The Fundamentals of Ethics explains this thought as the Argument from False Happiness. It states that, “If hedonism is true, then happiness makes the same contribution to welfare whether it is based on true or false beliefs. Happiness based on false beliefs contributes less to welfare than happiness based on true beliefs. Therefore, hedonism is false.” (Shafer-Landau, 2018, p. 36) Given this argument, imagine this situation. A woman that loves and trusts her husband believes that he has been completely faithful. The husband is cheating on her and will keep doing so, but without her knowledge. If you were that women, would you care if he is lying to you, even if he is the best husband and makes you the happiest woman on earth? If your answer is yes, you are not a hedonist. Hedonists just focus on happiness, whether if it is based on true or false beliefs. It is the same situation in the Experience Machine, it would be happiness based just on an illusion, because in reality you are still stuck to a machine. None of your perfect achievements or desires are true. For example, if you wish to find the cure for cancer and save millions of lives, you would not be saving anybody, or maybe you would, but just in your imagination. It is all fiction. I am definitely not a hedonist, because I feel that enjoyment should not be our only motive for our …show more content…
One of the other things we want from life is to make our own decisions about it. The power to guide our life through our own free choices, even if sometimes costs us our happiness. Autonomous choices don't always lead to happiness. Things can go wrong; we make free choices that can lead to damaged relationships, financial disasters, or missed opportunities. Still, we need only imagine a life without autonomy to see what a tragedy it would be. Saying this we can make another argument against Hedonism. The Argument from Autonomy: “If hedonism is true, then autonomy contributes to a good life only insofar as it makes us happy. Autonomy sometimes directly contributes to a good life, even when it fails to makes us happy. Therefore, hedonism is false.” (Shafer-Landau, 2018, p. 39) For example, what would you choose, a good life where you are happy taking your own decisions, even where you can fail in them, or a perfect life where there’s going to be someone always telling you what to do, what to eat, how to move, where to go? This would be a “perfect” life, they could ask you to take a plane and travel, but all actions would be guided by someone else. It is easy to choose; this proves that humans value autonomy, even if it costs a little bit of their