need help on this question. this for my humanities class, and please use your own thoughs and own words.
What if there was such a thing as a "pleasure machine"? The machine would give you feelings of pleasure and joy - all you would need to do is hook up. Would you hook up? Would your experience of pleasure be real?
This scenario is based on a thought experiment developed by Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick. In his book, "Anarchy, State, and Utopia", Nozick uses the thought experiment to refute the ethical philosophy of hedonism. (Hedonism is the philosophy that "pleasure" is the summum bonum, or greatest good, in life.) Nozick ultimately argues that hedonism is not a valid moral theory. He uses this thought experiment to argue that other things are more valuable in life than pleasure, and that the "machine" shows that "pleasurable experiences" can be fabricated, and hence are of lesser value than, say, wisdom or virtue.
this thought experiment provides an interesting approach to thinking about virtual reality. If someone chooses to hook up to the machine, would that person have "real" experiences? What would be the difference between hooking up to the machine and taking a drug that causes a person to feel pleasure?