You're Guaranteed Happiness. The Catch? It's Not Real.
An exploration of Robert Nozick's 'Experience Machine' and its implications on our search for happiness, fulfilment, and meaning.
Imagine this; you have the opportunity to live your ideal life. You could be a billionaire, a famous rockstar, an explorer of deep-space, or anything else. You could quite literally experience anything that you desire, and it could happen at the click of a button. To put it simply; you could live a life of complete happiness and pleasure. Do you think you’d truly be happy and fulfilled? According to Robert Nozick, the answer is no.
Today, we’ll be wrapping up our 3-part series on happiness. This post will be dedicated to exploring a few ideas from Robert Nozick, an American philosopher who made significant contributions to the sub-fields of metaphysics, epistemology, and more.
Let’s dive in.
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick, just like Nietzsche, wanted to demonstrate that pleasure and happiness isn’t our sole goal in life. He demonstrated his ideas through a thought experiment known as The Experience Machine, which primarily attacked hedonism (a philosophy that prioritizes pleasure over every…