Nozick and Williams

In this lecture, I cover the critiques of Utilitarianism offered by Robert Nozick and Bernard Williams.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Utilitarianism
• Williams
• Nozick
• critiques
• philosophy
• lecture

[TheDkuehn]

Nozick's thought experiment leaves a lot to be desired. Do people really find this convincing?

If you don't want to plug yourself into a pleasure machine, obviously it doesn't sound pleasurable to you. In other words, he uses an unpleasurable example to prove that we don't always want things that are pleasurable. How does that make sense?

Williams's critique is a much, much better one.

I'm always confused about why people are so impressed with Nozick.

[jvukovlectures]

Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. And I agree with you that Williams' critique is a much better one.

This said, I think Nozick's argument (while it falls apart fairly rapidly with a critique such as the one you give) is a good way of hinting at some of the problems of Utilitarianism, even if in the end it fails at refuting it.

[insettostecco]

Thanks, helpful. Having just read the second chapter of Mill's 'utilitarianism' I can't help thinking that Mill's Dignity is equivalent to William's 'Honouring of a Commitment'.



[alifeofreason]

However, I find Williams argument a very poor one.

[alifeofreason]

@TheDkuehn I agree with you. Nozick's experience machine is like a trick.

[snarge]

@TheDkuehn But yes, I think this video is a bit misleading. I don't think Nozick is attacking happiness In General here. He's just attacking the idea that it doesn't matter how one's happiness comes about. This experiment does kind of appear in a chapter on Utilitarianism, but this isn't really his attack on it. That comes later with his "utility monster."

[snarge]

@TheDkuehn That's his whole point, that it Is unpleasurable. At least before plugging in. Why? Remember, while plugged in, you wouldn't know you were plugged in. It would all be "real" To You. His point is that because it would not be really Real, it would be meaningless. He's simply trying to understand Why this is true. Why does experience matter? If Feeling pleasure/happiness were all that mattered, you would absolutely plug in. Easy choice. Since you wouldn't, are they not all that matter?

[snarge]

@TheDkuehn To be totally fair here, I do not think Nozick is directly addressing Utilitarianism with this thought experiment. He's addressing whether "feeling from the inside" matters compared to actually doing something. In other words, he's showing that meaning is derived from experience. It is better to Actually write a novel than it is to have your brain just think it's written a novel. Calling his argument weak With Respect to Utilitarianism is fair, but the argument itself does ring true.