Hedonism

Philosophers are fond of wild hypotheticals: psychophysicists confined to black-and-white rooms, trolleys targeting victims with unnerving precision, magic rings that turn those who wear them invisible (and perhaps unjust).

One of the most well-known thought-experiments in philosophy is Robert Nozick’s “experience machine”: a flawlessly convincing virtual reality in which one victim, unaware that they’ve been plugged in, is fed a stream of consciousness that simulates an ideal life. The point is that their life is not in fact ideal: there’s more to living well than one’s subjective mental states. Philosophical hedonism—the view that a life is good in proportion to its net balance of pleasure over pain—is false.

As I wrote in Life is Hard, examining a version of the case in which the victim is “submerged in sustaining fluid, electrodes plugged into her brain”: “You wouldn’t wish it on someone you love: to be imprisoned in a vat, alone forever, duped.” If you would, you’re making a mistak…