“ Non-philosophers tend to think of a hedonist as a person who seeks out pleasure for themselves without any particular regard for their own future well-being or for the well-being of others”. Barbara is not concerned about her well-being, and she most certainly isn’t concerned about the well-being of anyone else(besides
Kaylee Wheeler Mahady Per. 1 AP English 11 Lang./Comp. 18 October 2017 Nonfiction Book Reporting Book Title: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Genre: Nonfiction, environmental literature Author: Chuck Klosterman Number of Pages: Brief Summary and “Arrangement” of the Book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, written by Chuck Klosterman, is a book dedicated to the author’s studies and personal accounts affiliating 20th-century pop culture and how it affects the United States’ Generation X. The novel consists of an introduction, 18 chapters, and an index.
Pain, discomfort, suffering, depression, does not exist. Citizens of this world are conditioned from a young age to seek pleasure above all: to be satisfied with where they are, to be addicted to a drug that takes away all negative emotions, to be “happy. ”When young they are conditioned to like certain things, like outdoor sports, but have a disdain for other things, such as flowers. In this situation, people would enjoy the recreational use of the outdoors, but dislike it enough that they want to come back to the city. Essentially, they are conditioned to ultimately “consume manufactured articles as well as transportation”(Huxley 23).
In an article, Robert Nozick imagines a machine that would simulate experiences. A person could choose to be connected to it and choose what type of experience they would like to have and who they could share it with. Nozick claims that “plugging into the machine is a kind of suicide”. It would be a type of suicide because a person would lose free will. As a consequence, they would lose their personality, a sense of achievement, and true memories.
The average American is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements a day (Marshall). This can include emails, commercials, billboards, and many others. Advertising is a means of informing choice to its viewers, and it is vital to the success of any business. Although advertising is necessary, over the past fifteen years, advertising has had a negative effect on culture by encouraging conformity and having harmful effects on self-esteem as well as financial status.
Robert Nozick uses his idea of an experience machine to prove that hedonism is false. Nozick’s experience machine fails because people value and desire the real world and not just the experiences they encounter. In this paper, I will show that the experience machine fails because it does not allow people to encounter real life feelings and the real world, physically. I will begin by using Nozick’s belief about how the experience machine proves hedonism to be false. (Nozick, 1974, p.32)
In a short piece he wrote, Robert Nozick discussed the possibility of a machine that people could plug into and experience different events. They would be able to experience anything they chose, and they alone would be in control of what experiences they would take part in. Nozick strongly opposes the idea of living our lives and experiences through such a machine by bringing up several logical arguments. The first argument Nozick uses to oppose such an idea is the fact that we as people want to do things rather than just experience them. We want to be able to actually do the things we long to do rather than just have the experiences which, Nozick argues, is fundamentally different.
In the film 127 Hours, James Franco portrays Aron Ralston, a real-life rock climber who resorted to cutting off his own hand after spending days trapped in Blue John Canyon in Utah. The film demonstrates various theories of motivation, including the arousal theory of motivation, the drive-reduction theory theory of motivation, and the instinct theory of motivation. Ralston was initially motivated by a constant need for excitement, which is why he enjoyed rock climbing in the first place. According to the arousal theory of motivation, humans are motivated to attain a certain level of arousal or stimulation, either mental or physical. It is safe to say that Ralston required even more stimulation than the average person.
“The Machine Stops” is set in the distant post-apocalyptic future where mankind had lost the ability to live on Earth’s surface. In fact, conditions on the surface were so harsh that being banished to the surface was the ultimate punishment for crimes in this new society, an equivalent to the death sentence in today’s world. Mankind had to live underground all over earth. Everyone was isolated in a standard cell where all their needs or wants could be fulfilled without leaving the room. They did so with the help of the omnipotent global Machine which men had invented long ago.
Hedonism and the desire-satisfaction theory of welfare are typically seen as archrivals in the contest over identifying what makes one’s life better. It is surprising, then, that the most plausible form of hedonism is desire satisfactionism. The hedonism theory focuses on pleasure/happiness while the desire-satisfaction theory elucidates the relevance of fulfilling our desires. Pleasure, in some points of view is the subjective satisfaction of desire. I will explain the similarities and the differences between the desire-satisfaction theory of value and hedonism.
During chapter two in the fundamentals of ethics book, the paradox of hedonism is explained. The paradox of hedonism is described as “those who try really hard to make themselves happier almost never succeed” (Shafer-Landau, 33). Many people believe that if they try extremely hard to be happy then sooner or later they will become happy, but is this really true? Hedonists believe “that even if many people don’t in fact strive for happiness, they should do so, and would do so if they knew what was good for them” (Shafer-Landau, 32). This quote is saying that happiness is an intrinsic good; but as we learned on pages 33 and 34 it is not.
The ‘happiness’ of Brave New World is akin to physical pleasure as evidenced by the existence of ‘the feelies’ and the rampant use of soma. In contention to this definition of happiness, Epicurus explicitly states, “So when we say that pleasure is the goal we do not mean the pleasures of the profligate or the pleasures of consumption… , but rather the lack of pain in the body and disturbance in the soul”(362). By saying this, Epicurus dismisses the idea that man should thoughtlessly surrender to primal desire and instead argues that we should focus on pleasing the soul through “sober calculation which serves out the reasons for every choice and avoidance and drive out the opinions which are the source of the greatest turmoil for men’s souls” (362). He argues this because, in his and our cultures, giving in to one’s primal desires will
Exploring Pleasure and Pain In his Ted Talk, The Origins of Pleasure, Paul Bloom has explored how the source of an item can define its value and how this affects the pleasure or pain within human nature. Bloom has the ability to elicit the audience’s interest because of his avid storytelling, his use of relatable scenarios and his sense of humour. Bloom ventures through his talk to get to his final thought of about how ones perception can change pain into pleasure.
In this study, 17 patients each had a 120-degree heat simulator placed on their legs. Patients all gave varying numerical (0-10) values to their pain, even though the actual source of pain was identical (Science Daily, 2013). This study shows that everyone experiences pain differently, and, therefore, experiences happiness and pleasure differently. Hedonistic utilitarianism also requires, in certain circumstances, that we choose to make decisions that make us happier in the long run. This can be a very complicated task, and makes deciding which actions to take in everyday life, much harder.
CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 INTRODUCTION: Newspaper firms have started to search for online delivery channels so as to retain the young readers. As a result, they have transferred a considerable amount of their delivery channels from print to online format. Most of the media firms have started to implement a 360-degree strategy that integrates content decisions “shaped by the potential to generate consumer value and returns through multiple platforms of expression of that content via a number of distribution outlets” (Doyle, 2010).
