Hedonism and Experience Machine
Hedonism is a philosophy that argues that having a good life is one that has a lot of pleasurable experience. In hedonism, pleasure is the only thing that motivates hedonism, is determined by what individuals recognize as pleasure. Pleasure is another terminology used to refer to hedonism that describes a feeling, or a mental state that an individual desires, a sense of satisfaction, happiness, and enjoyment.In preference, hedonism pleasure is any mental state that is desired and describes pleasurable life as one that is intrinsically good (PBS Idea Channel). The experience machine tries to dismantle and examine hedonism. The experience machine is defined as an ultimate virtual reality headset that simulates life experiences of any kind for any individual who plugs himself into it. In the thought of the experiment machine, Nozick requests us to visualize a machine that could offer us the pleasurable or desirable that we could want. In the experiment machine, psychologists have devised a way to stimulate an individual’s brains to induce desirable or pleasurable experiences that a person could not differentiate from those he would have apart from the machine. Nozick believes that if desire or pleasure were the only intrinsic value, individuals would have overriding reasons to be plugged in the “Experience Machine”, which in return would offer them satisfactory sensations as they believe that more pleasure equals to a better life (Nozick 43). A true hedonist would be obliged to choose the experience machine over reality because experiencing more pleasure is what matters to a true hedonist, and he will experience all his desires and pure pleasure in it. In an experience machine, a true hedonist would prefer to be plugged in to have a happy life but a deceived one, one may live a wealthy life in the machine than living in harsh reality.
What Real-life Entails
Real-life entails real-life experiences rather than having a mental state that resembles doing pleasurable experiences. A good life is not a straightforward thing that individuals experience both experienced harm and benefits rather than in the experience machine’s life.Plugging in an experience machine would be unethical since one would have to imagine leaving his family and friends just for a permanent virtual feel-good experience. Plugging in an experience machine would deprive us a chance to be and do certain things in life. There are high chances of persons experiencing a subconscious fear of change when the thought of the experience machine is reversed. Virtue ethics relates and place more emphasis on the moral character and virtues, and being an experience machine would deny an individual a chance to develop a sense of character and being a person one may be determined to be to achieve true happiness. Trying to avoid real-life and desire to experience pleasure via experience machine would be dishonest. It would actually o harm to others, and we cannot achieve eudemonia by continuously treating our fellow family and friends negatively, since they would have to plug in too for them to experience the same experience. Also, plugging in would be inflicting unimaginable harm to our colleagues as this would deny them our company forever.According to Aristotle (12), in utilitarianism in virtue ethics, the meaning of a person’s intentions and motivations to attain happiness is ignored. How we live in reality determines how our life is with everything beyond happiness. Individuals often want to view themselves as specific sort of people, and plugging in would make that aspect impossible. Consequently, it might be similar to committing suicide, thus the hedonism school of thought rejection which assumes that pleasure in the absence of pain is the only things worth human struggles. To an extent, I suggest plugging in would be against God’s will, in that evading life trials would jeopardize the eternal reward due from persevering suffering in real life.
Why People Should not Plug in the Experience Machine
So then are you most? Yes, I reject and opt not to plug myself in the experience machine, since it just provides a permanent virtual experience and incases the thought of the machine may be reversed, it may result in subconscious fear of getting back to real life. A good life is not merely being happy or what we feel, and it is not just the internal feelings that matter. In my opinion, not only what we do that matters but also what we are also matters. Individuals crave for the deeper reality in life and desire to live in contact with reality. This implies that individuals want more than happy that the experience machine would be able to provide sufficiently. In real life, persons crave for hardships and struggles that make the bliss distinct (Nozick 45). Therefore, plugging into the life machine to experience an unreal lifewould deprive the humans a chance to experience the real happiness and pleasure attained through conquering struggles and life hardships, which relates to the good life. Ultimately, the decision to plug in or not would be about a myriad of factorssuch as the strength of our belief in a higher force, the significance we stem from human interconnections, and whether reality with its cons and pros can deliver happiness. Given how important a choice of plugging would be, it is inevitable that the deliberation on our answer would remain both tricky and highly subjective.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.U of Chicago P, 2012.
Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia.Basic Books, 1974.
PBS Idea Channel. “Is Pleasure The Secret to a Good Life? | Thought Experiment: The Experience Machine.” YouTube, 27 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5GQulYyRg&feature=youtu.be.