Jul 7, 2018 08:23 PM
https://www.kinesophy.com/experience-machine/
EXCERPT: Part of the difficulty in defining moral rules stems from the fact that each individual experiences the world differently. What I perceive as pain may feel like minor discomfort to someone else. If there is common ground from which to build a set of moral rules, it seems we will have to start with something more substantial than perceived experiences.
To illustrate this point, philosopher Robert Nozick imagined a so-called experience machine that would give users whatever experiences they wanted. He argued that most people would find this machine unsatisfying. We don’t just want the perception of experiences; we want to act and live out those experiences. Nozick’s experience machine shows that our physical bodies and actions are essential to the lives we want to live. And we need them in order to understand and practice morality.
Nozick conceives the experience machine in the early pages of his book Anarchy, State and Utopia as he explores different ways to think about morality. How people perceive the world, how they think about it and what they want from it matter when we try to determine what moral rules constrain human behavior. But morality seems to require more than individual preferences and desires. Somehow, morality requires that we translate individual experiences into rules that apply to everyone. Yet as Nozick observes, there are “substantial puzzles when we ask what matters other than how people’s experiences feel ‘from the inside.’”...
MORE: https://www.kinesophy.com/experience-machine/
EXCERPT: Part of the difficulty in defining moral rules stems from the fact that each individual experiences the world differently. What I perceive as pain may feel like minor discomfort to someone else. If there is common ground from which to build a set of moral rules, it seems we will have to start with something more substantial than perceived experiences.
To illustrate this point, philosopher Robert Nozick imagined a so-called experience machine that would give users whatever experiences they wanted. He argued that most people would find this machine unsatisfying. We don’t just want the perception of experiences; we want to act and live out those experiences. Nozick’s experience machine shows that our physical bodies and actions are essential to the lives we want to live. And we need them in order to understand and practice morality.
Nozick conceives the experience machine in the early pages of his book Anarchy, State and Utopia as he explores different ways to think about morality. How people perceive the world, how they think about it and what they want from it matter when we try to determine what moral rules constrain human behavior. But morality seems to require more than individual preferences and desires. Somehow, morality requires that we translate individual experiences into rules that apply to everyone. Yet as Nozick observes, there are “substantial puzzles when we ask what matters other than how people’s experiences feel ‘from the inside.’”...
MORE: https://www.kinesophy.com/experience-machine/