The Ultimate Experience: Life in Color
I. Introduction
In what may seem a harsh generalization, I would like to begin by considering the likelihood of a Christian committing suicide to gain an early entry into heaven? On first inclination, we know this would not happen because they perceive suicide to be a sin. Even with a less nuanced version, we know that in spite of the belief of heaven and a perfect afterlife, there has not been a wide scale mass extinction of Christians any time lately. If I were to formally ask someone this question, they would probably think that I was joking, because of how absurd it sounds. My point is: this is similar to Nozick’s experience thought machine. Philosophers, such as Nozick, argued that a life plugged …show more content…
While I’m not sure if that’s a question I can answer I do have a few suggestions of what may be missing from a life consisting entirely of mental states, because it is essentially what living in the experience machine would be like. Three ideas I argue not only as being critical to the construction of self, but also show why a life consisting only of mental states is missing a few things such as: the construction of a strong personal narrative, a meaningful life, and the temporality of …show more content…
This is because Ali would not be able to construct a narrative arc by living her life through a subset of various mental states. In order for Ali to fully construct a personal narrative that she would be proud of, she would have to be able to integrate her own lived experiences with reflections on her decisions that she has made in order to construct a story for a beginning middle and end. While the story: Ali was offered the opportunity to plug into a machine that provides her with endless joy and now that’s how she lives, is a story, it is not a complete narrative. Ali’s construction of her personal narrative needs to ultimately reflect Ali’s personality in a way that incorporates how she interacts with her environment, and the people around her, and how these events shape who she is as an ever changing person. Plugged into the experience machine (or living a life only of mental states) would effectively deprive Ali of a chance to construct her narrative because it would not include anyone but herself, which takes away the real point of a personal narrative: to share with
I. Introduction
In what may seem a harsh generalization, I would like to begin by considering the likelihood of a Christian committing suicide to gain an early entry into heaven? On first inclination, we know this would not happen because they perceive suicide to be a sin. Even with a less nuanced version, we know that in spite of the belief of heaven and a perfect afterlife, there has not been a wide scale mass extinction of Christians any time lately. If I were to formally ask someone this question, they would probably think that I was joking, because of how absurd it sounds. My point is: this is similar to Nozick’s experience thought machine. Philosophers, such as Nozick, argued that a life plugged …show more content…
While I’m not sure if that’s a question I can answer I do have a few suggestions of what may be missing from a life consisting entirely of mental states, because it is essentially what living in the experience machine would be like. Three ideas I argue not only as being critical to the construction of self, but also show why a life consisting only of mental states is missing a few things such as: the construction of a strong personal narrative, a meaningful life, and the temporality of …show more content…
This is because Ali would not be able to construct a narrative arc by living her life through a subset of various mental states. In order for Ali to fully construct a personal narrative that she would be proud of, she would have to be able to integrate her own lived experiences with reflections on her decisions that she has made in order to construct a story for a beginning middle and end. While the story: Ali was offered the opportunity to plug into a machine that provides her with endless joy and now that’s how she lives, is a story, it is not a complete narrative. Ali’s construction of her personal narrative needs to ultimately reflect Ali’s personality in a way that incorporates how she interacts with her environment, and the people around her, and how these events shape who she is as an ever changing person. Plugged into the experience machine (or living a life only of mental states) would effectively deprive Ali of a chance to construct her narrative because it would not include anyone but herself, which takes away the real point of a personal narrative: to share with