Department of Philosophy

The Universal Pure Pleasure Machine: Suicide or Nirvana?

Kelly Inglis
BNU-HKBU United International College

Abstract:
If Nozick’s Experience Machine thought experiment succeeds in revealing a general reluctance to choose a pleasurable virtual lifeover humdrum reality, that would be good evidence that most people are not intuitively hedonists. However, recent work argues that this thought experiment does not succeed in showing that hedonism is unattractive to most people, due to various confounding factors that interfere with people’s relevant intuitions (such as status quo bias and fear of technological glitches). In fact, when questioned on certain similar cases that bypass these concerns, a majority of respondents appear willing to choose a pleasant virtual world over a less pleasant reality. Does that show that most people are intuitively hedonists? I argue that it does not. The experience machine and its variants all fail to effectively target hedonism because they offer much more than pure pleasure – they typically offer a rich and varied life of manifold opportunities. On some interpretations, moreover, the opportunities offered are compatible with many non-hedonistic values, such as the pursuit of truth, beauty or philosophy. You don’t need to be a hedonist to opt for one of those machines. In response, I propose the Universal Pure Pleasure Machine, which both avoids the pitfalls of Nozick’s thought experiment and provides a more targeted attack on hedonism. I review experimental evidence that supports a wide-scale rejection of that hedonistic fantasy and finally analyse why the Universal Pure Pleasure Machine elicits such a negative reaction and what that tells us about the viability of hedonism.

Friday, November 1
4:00-5:30 pm
Room 10.27 Run Run Shaw Tower
Centennial Campus
University of Hong Kong

For inquiries: Amit Chaturvedi amitc@hku.hk