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Robert Nozick Experience Machine False

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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) The first section will be based on Nozick’s belief that people want to believe that they have certain values. (Nozick, 1974, p.32) My second section will cover Nozick’s statement about plugging into the experience machine is a kind of suicide. (Nozick, 1974, …show more content…

Nozick believes that people want to believe that they have certain values. (Nozick, 1974, p.32) This means that everyone has beliefs that they are kind, smart, caring, or loving. With the experience machine, there is no way to know how other people perceive you because in the experience machine you are just a floating blob. This belief of Nozick’s helps to prove hedonism is false because it shows that we desire to be kind or caring and not just that we had a certain experience. (Nozick, 1974, p.32) If we only cared about the experience, then we would not care how other people perceive us, but that is something as humans we …show more content…

According to Nozick, being plugged into the experience machine is a kind of suicide. (Nozick, 1974, p.32) Without doing certain things, you are not getting the full affect that the experience has on you. If you are in the experience machine and you make a friend, then you are not getting the full benefits you desire while making a friend or having a friend. The experience machine only allows you to see what it is like to make a friend. What the experience machine does not do is allow you to realize if that friend really likes you and cares for you. In the experience machine, you are not able to tell if your friend is only being nice to you and is going behind your back and saying they hate you. In the real world, you can see all parts of a person and not just the parts that you want to be experiencing with a person. To have a good friend, you need to know that they truly are your friend and not just someone who is nice when talking to you. This is something that we in the real world

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