Meaning Of Life Princeton University Press -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Meaning Of Life Princeton University Press? Answer: Introduction Robert Nozick (Anarchy, Utopia and the state) had offered an experience machine that had the ability to offer the experience' of our choice. He further elaborated that neuropsychologists could fuel the brain of humans so that we would feel and think about such management as if all our experiences were real. This involved choosing various experiences like writing a popular novel, making great friends or even reading a motivating book while at the same time skimming in a tank where electrodes would be attached to our brain. The experience machine would be able to offer a large library of experiences to browse, and keeping in mind that we are encountering how it feels, we would not know that what we were encountering was not a reality. Nozick(1936-2000; Harward University) refuted ethical hedonism (Democritus(DK68 B 188), Aristippus of Cyrene,Aristippus the Younger; 4th century BC. Nozick, through his experience machine', offered a choice for people to imagine a world between everyday reality and an apparently preferable reality based on simulation. Robert Nozick has suggested that instead of merely having an experience of doing certain things, we would want to implement them in the current scenario. We want to be certain people and hence plugging into the experience machine would be a kind of suicide, limiting us to a human created reality, while using the experience machine. Nozick further argued that if pleasure had been the matter of concern for humans, then they would enter into the experience machine. Consequently, there are other factors, which are to be considered other than satisfaction. According to Robert Nozick, many important ingredients' remain to be missing from our lives. Nozick claims, There is som ething other than the pleasure that has value and thereby increases our well-being, as a result, hedonism is defeated. I totally agree with Nozicks view that there are things that we humans value above our own pleasure and that seeking pleasure for the sake of pleasure abandons us lacking something imperative or important. Besides, having an unrestrained choice is all baloney since its experience predetermined and unreal. The principal law of the universe is evolving/change. The natural order of our world has taught us that the species that do not evolve perish and hence end up becoming extinct. This leaves us with the question- How are we supposed to evolve hooked to electrodes, under simulation, inside an experience machine'. In further understanding the fallacy behind the proposed experience machine', how about we take a stab at assessing what 'encounter' is to us. It is not evident that there is any such simply given 'inexperience'. That is, all experience seems to interpret and therefore bound up with various assumptions about whats going on around us at all times. The second challenge with experience is, how might we make sure our thinking from the certainties of experience is sound? According to the theories of philosophy, thought experiments are unreliable methods of doing philosophy. Methods of Ethics (Sidgwick) refer to logical measures by humans to determine what they ought' to do and what is right' for them to do. Ethics instructs us about the rules of our conduct'. In view of the notion regarding what makes life good for the individuals', living that life, it is highly recommended to use the term, well-being, instead of happiness/pleasure. Well-being plays an essential role in any moral theory. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics supports the claim that well-being is constituted by virtue. For Aristotle, virtue/good-will is not only morally good but also good for the individual. Intuitionism/common morality provides the people with a position for sensible self-love but it does not permit any selfishness with it. Right lead has much less to do with desires and narrow-minded satisfactions. The thing that matters most is duty and virtue. Unlike self-satisfaction, the morals of right and obligation utilize a technique of priority, thinking from the obvious truth. Sidgwick called it, the method of intuition. According to Sidgwick, basic principles of egoism and utilitarianism are both self-evident. That is, self-interest and morality coincide. Utilitarianism is significantly compatible with common moral values. If, given a choice, I would never consider entering the experience machine. Neuroscience (Paul Thagard; University of Waterloo; The Brain and The Meaning of Life) possesses the capability to provide an in-depth understanding of the processing of the human brain. It can also provide a genuine need for relatedness, competence, and autonomy that could be satisfied by the successful pursuit of love, work, and play. Such forms of satisfaction could be helpful in yielding a true meaning of happiness, but even the pursuit would be enough to provide life with a meaning'. psychology research (Sonja Lyubomirskys; How of Happiness) has accredited several habits in which people can help themselves in increasing the happiness in their lives. Happiness is directly proportional to a significant life. Many people have led a meaningful life. They have set great examples for others to follow, but they may not be very happy. Still, they do not want to replace their lives with anything meaningless/illus ory like Nozicks experience machine. Life's most valuable lessons are learned through pain and need and faulty actions and experience machine' would rob us of all the above. I would further try to justify my views on Nozicks experience machine, through Darwinism. The concept of Social Darwinism (Hofstadter), which was proposed by Richard Hofstadter in his book - Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944), has taught us that humans require competition in their lives, for their survival/existence. Nozicks machine is devoid of this element. Darwin in his book The Descent of Man has mentioned that social behaviors such as understanding and moral sentiments (ethics) have evolved over time through a process of natural selection and have resulted in the reinforcement of societies in which they occurred. Herbert Spencer had conceptualized in his essay - The Social Organism (1860) which promoted the belief regarding that the struggle for survival encouraged self-improvement, which could be inherited. Nozick offers the experience-machine to attain desired experience e.g., if I desire to be a successful writer, for me the process of achieving my goal would be as significant, if not more, than success itself. Last but not the least, I would like to end this discussion with a quote by Carl Rogers The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination. References Hofstadter, Richard.Social Darwinism in American thought. Vol. 16. Beacon Press, management. Nozick, Robert. "Anarchy, Utopia and the state."New York: Basic Book(1974). Sidgwick, Henry. "The Methods of Ethics (Indianapolis, Hackett, 1981)."Il. il(1874). Thagard, Paul.The brain and the meaning of life.Princeton University Press, 2010.