In Defense of Happiness: A Response to the Experience Machine
Author(s)
Silverstein, Matthew
Abstract
Many philosophers believe that Robert Nozick’s experience machine argument poses an insurmountable obstacle to hedonism as a theory of well-being. After an initial attempt to demonstrate that the persuasiveness of this argument rests on a key ambiguity, the author argues that the intuitions to which the thought experiment appeals are not nearly as clear as many philosophers suppose they are. The author believes that a careful consideration of the origin of those intuitions–especially in light of the so-called “paradox of hedonism”–reveals that they can, in fact, fit quite comfortably into a hedonistic theory of well-being.
