According to hedonism, a life is good to the extent that it is filled with happiness (pleasure) and bad to the extent it is filled with unhappiness (pain). It is important to note that hedonists are not referring to physical pleasure as the key to the good life, rather, they are referring to it as enjoyment (attitudinal pleasure). Another way to interpret this is by saying that a good life is having many pleasurable experiences and nothing else. A hedonist might say that if you enjoy doing something, then doing so is pleasurable, so your life is good. Well, according to Robert Nozick, a very famous philosopher, a good life is not just about having a good time, it’s about having a true time. There are other intrinsic goods we value such as truth, self-discovery, and autonomy, therefore hedonism is false.
Nozick provided a very well-known argument in an attempt to examine hedonism, the ‘Experience Machine’, which is basically an experiment concerning simulated experiences. This machine is the ultimate virtual reality headset which creates life-like simulations that …show more content…
By plugging into the machine you would just be what Nozick calls “an intermediate blob” with “no answer to the question of what a person is like” (Nozick, 28). Your life would only consist of experiencing fake experiences with no actual interaction with other human beings; a world without relations, responsibility, love, goals and many other things that mold us into who we are as a person. Responsibility helps you develop good character, relations make you feel protected, love motivates you to be the best person you can be for your loved ones, and your goals take you forward in life. None of this is accomplishable if you spend your entire life in the machine, so it may very well be “a kind of suicide” (Nozick,
Nozick provided a very well-known argument in an attempt to examine hedonism, the ‘Experience Machine’, which is basically an experiment concerning simulated experiences. This machine is the ultimate virtual reality headset which creates life-like simulations that …show more content…
By plugging into the machine you would just be what Nozick calls “an intermediate blob” with “no answer to the question of what a person is like” (Nozick, 28). Your life would only consist of experiencing fake experiences with no actual interaction with other human beings; a world without relations, responsibility, love, goals and many other things that mold us into who we are as a person. Responsibility helps you develop good character, relations make you feel protected, love motivates you to be the best person you can be for your loved ones, and your goals take you forward in life. None of this is accomplishable if you spend your entire life in the machine, so it may very well be “a kind of suicide” (Nozick,