Imagine a world where you could choose your destiny with the click of a button. You could have any experience, anytime, anywhere. With the only exception being to give up the life you are currently living. Would you choose to have your own life experiences? Or would you create your own destiny in order to fulfill your desires of living a perfect life? This is an argument that is discussed within the ethical view of Hedonism, and is contradicted with the theory of the “experience machine”, by Robert Nozick. Hedonism, coming from the Greek word hédoné, meaning happiness, is the ethical view that happiness is the only intrinsic value in a person’s life. For something to be intrinsically valuable means that it has value in and of itself, and
…show more content…
There are other important values such as family, truth, well-being, and real life experiences. Since hedonism measures a good life solely by the amount of happiness it contains, the idea that there are multiple intrinsic values conflicts with hedonism, proving that it must be false. Nozick’s argument against hedonism is efficient in proving the ethical view wrong. The points he makes on why not to plug into the experience machine are valid because they prove that there are other goods that are intrinsically valuable besides happiness in a person’s life. Nozick is also correct when he compares the experience machine to suicide. With this theory, if someone were to plug in, they would no longer be alive. Besides the fact that one cannot wake up from the machine, they would also become an unidentifiable person. One would lose all characteristics of a living being after plugging in, and ultimately be dead to the outside world. “Perhaps what we desire is to live ourselves, in contact with reality” (The Ethical Life 23). Nozick is accurate when he states that many would not use the experience machine, essentially proving hedonism
There are other important values such as family, truth, well-being, and real life experiences. Since hedonism measures a good life solely by the amount of happiness it contains, the idea that there are multiple intrinsic values conflicts with hedonism, proving that it must be false. Nozick’s argument against hedonism is efficient in proving the ethical view wrong. The points he makes on why not to plug into the experience machine are valid because they prove that there are other goods that are intrinsically valuable besides happiness in a person’s life. Nozick is also correct when he compares the experience machine to suicide. With this theory, if someone were to plug in, they would no longer be alive. Besides the fact that one cannot wake up from the machine, they would also become an unidentifiable person. One would lose all characteristics of a living being after plugging in, and ultimately be dead to the outside world. “Perhaps what we desire is to live ourselves, in contact with reality” (The Ethical Life 23). Nozick is accurate when he states that many would not use the experience machine, essentially proving hedonism