Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

SUBSCRIBE NOW

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit Subscriptions.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Articles

The Experience Machine and Psychiatric Drugs

Emil Asplund & Erik Gustavsson try to find the truth about medication.

Imagine a device which will give you any experience you desire. This is what Robert Nozick asks us to do in his Anarchy, State and Utopia. The only thing you need to do is to let some neuropsychologists put you (or just your brain) in a tank and work their magic. Whatever pleasant experiences you are looking for, the machine will provide them, and they would feel completely real.

To plug into the experience machine will provide you with the greatest possible amount of happiness.

…