Category: Asher’s Favorite Posts
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[Featured] Nozick’s Experience Machine: Is Pleasure the Only Good?
![[Featured] Nozick’s Experience Machine: Is Pleasure the Only Good?](https://kantstopthinking.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/635187350773856993_the_happiness_machine_by_tris31-d37ajkp.jpg)
The Experience Machine, a thought experiment developed in 1974 by philosopher Richard Nozick, asks us a very simple question. If there was a machine that could simulate a reality that is perfect in every way, would you jump in? For the sake of the question, assume that this perfect reality molds to each person and Read more
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Singer’s Drowning Child: Close but no Cigar
Peter Singer is perhaps the most famous currently-living philosopher. His views are vast, with implications in bioethics to universal poverty. Perhaps one of his most famous works is the Drowning Child thought experiment, in his 1972 book Famine, Affluence and Morality. The argument offers a very convincing reason for why we should live a more Read more
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I Think, Therefore I’m….Not? What did Descartes Actually Prove?
One of the first ideas in philosophy people often hear is Descartes’ famous Cogito, Ergo Sum: I think, therefore I am. In this post, I’d like to dissect the phrase, offer its true meaning, and challenge Descartes on its overall implications for knowledge. I’ve discussed earlier in this blog how Descartes arrived at this landmark Read more
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Prepare for the Predictor: Why One-Boxing Wins Newcomb’s Problem
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” -Benjamin Franklin The Problem Newcomb’s problem is one of the most famous problems in the branch of philosophy, probability, and mathematics called decision theory. What’s even more interesting, in my opinion, is that contemporary philosophers are nearly split down the middle between one-boxing and two-boxing. Read more
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You’ve heard of Cultural Relativism. But what about Temporal Relativism?
If you’ve ever talked about morality, there is a good chance you’ve heard the terms moral relativism or cultural relativism. Moral relativism is the overarching stance that morality is relative, i.e., one cannot declare that certain actions are immoral (like killing). Cultural relativism takes this to an extreme, stating that morality can only be judged Read more