Robert Nozick: The Experience Machine

Introduction to Ethics

Winter 2018

Robert Nozick

FIRST PAPER ASSIGNMENT

Experience Machine

The Experience Machine

Robert Nozick

We as human beings are always comparing the difference between what we "ought to do" and what is the "right thing to do". Something that is right is not always the good thing to do and vice versa. For which reason, the experience machine was initiated by the famous Amercian philosopher "Robert Nozick" in his famous book "Anarchy, State and Utopia".

Nozick brought forward, the concept of the "experience machine" to disprove hedonism. Hedonism is a philosophical belief which proposes that things which are pleasant or have

He proposed the fact that we as human beings, want to engage in definite activities and not only want the experience of them. Therefore, Nozick debates that plugging yourself into the "experience machine" is another way of suicide as it confines us into a utopian society which is constructed and controlled by mankind.4 Furthermore, Nozick claims that if all that made a difference to mankind was pleasure, then each and every individual would choose to get plugged into the "experience machine", however, this is not the case. A vast majority of wise people would choose not to get plugged into the "experience machine". In accordance with Nozick, there are some "essential components" missing from a life in an "experience machine" and if he can show that there exists something except pleasure that has esteem and enhances our prosperity, then hedonism is

It is a universal truth that if a person doesn’t achieve his desires and cravings, he is left unsatisfied. I think that this dissatisfaction is temporary under a certain period of time and is not permanent. Nothing in this world is impossible to achieve but can be achieved by hard work and determination. We need to learn how to face the truth because life in reality, is full of ups and downs. The perfect life doesn’t exist rather than living a stimulated life full of misconceptions in the "experience machine". In order to be a perfect human being, we need to encounter all sort of experiences and undergo every kind of