Event name
Philosophy Coffee
When
Wed 09 / 11 / 2024
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Where
Dede's Home
Who can attend
Members only
Price
FREE
Organizer
Diana (DeDe) Prince
Enjoy good coffee and even better conversations with other Villagers as we explore philosophical ideas and concepts.
This month's topic: If you could hook yourself up to a machine that would provide you with whatever desirable or pleasurable experiences you wanted, would you? In his 1974 book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick uses this thought experiment to refute ethical hedonism - the idea that “pleasure is the good” and that anything that is not pleasurable does not contribute to your well-being. For Nozick, if pleasure were all that we valued, we’d have no reason not to plug ourselves into the experience machine. But Nozick argues that we do have reasons not to plug ourselves into the experience machine and therefore concludes that pleasure is not all we value.
With the creation of augmented/virtual reality systems, like the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest, what was once a thought experiment is becoming a reality. We can now experience things without leaving our living room, which gives Nozick’s thought experiment renewed relevance and importance. Moreover, how do our attitudes toward the experience machine change as we age?