CR7 - Grade: A PDF

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Summary

This course enters the subject of philosophy through a question that is familiar to nearly every student: What is the meaning of life? This question will be approached through reading both classical philosophical works (Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Tolstoy, Kant) and the works of contemporary philos...

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Evan Leitch 1. If hedonism is true, then happiness is intrinsically valuable and the aim of human life. 2. A reasonable person would decline to be involved in the Experience Machine that would provide happiness precisely as a person would like it showing how happiness is not always the aim of humans. C. Therefore, hedonism is false. The hedonist could argue that it isn’t happiness the person is declining, but the idea of it being “artificial” happiness. The Experience Machine is often declined because of the fact of your life being controlled and planned out with no surprises. A person hooked up to this machine would be like a lab rat. It’s not the fact the person is declining happiness, it’s the situation as a whole that a person is declining. A hedonist could also argue that this example is so unrealistic that it doesn't even matter. Why would something that couldn't ever happen even be considered and make a difference? It may be wrong to use unrealistic examples when dealing with a realistic situation. I do think this response would be successful. It gives a solid counter argument. I do think the point Nozick makes is a good argument against hedonism and has a point. However, I think mentioning the fact that people are denying the situation as a whole not because of the happiness, but because of the fake happiness or the fact that it is like a lab patient. Regardless of what one could do in the Experience Machine world, a person may likely still decline the offer. Either that means nothing in life is valuable except living life or that the Experience Machine is a thing nobody would like to do purely because it gives a false world to us. If that isn’t satisfying, then proving that it is impossible for this to ever happen may shows how it’s irrelevant to real life....