Thought Experiments as a Source of Philosophical Knowledge - Critical Reflections on Robert Nozick's "Experience Machine”Elke Brendel
5 May 2022
Elke Brendel (University of Bonn), 17:15 - 18:45, presents her project in the Interdisciplinary Research Seminar of the GRK "Collective Decision-Making”.
The seminar will take place in-person at Von-Melle-Park 9, room S28. The seminar is also live-streamed on Zoom. Please register (if you haven’t already) here if you want to attend the seminar. We invite everyone interested to attend!
Abstract
Thought experiments design hypothetical scenarios that convey important philosophical insights despite their often highly fictional nature - think, for example, of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, René Descartes' genius malignus, Hilary Putnam's brains in a vat, Derek Parfit's teletransporter, Donald Davidson's Swampman, as well as a thought experiment that will be the focus of this talk: Robert Nozick's experience machine. With this thought experiment Nozick intends to refute a certain form of hedonism and to show that we intrinsically value an authentic life.
After a brief discussion of the various epistemic functions of thought experiments in philosophy, a critical reflection of Nozick's experience machine thought experiment will be used to demonstrate the potentials, but also the dangers of thought experiments as a method of philosophical argumentation: On the one hand, thought experiments can stimulate critical engagement with philosophical positions through cleverly devised example cases, and thereby serve as a driving force of philosophical knowledge. On the other hand, thought experiments can be misused as mere "intuition pumps". In these cases, they do not convincingly achieve their intended argumentative goals.
Find the abstract as PDF here.