Ethics

Is there any serious discussion in philosophy that applies ethics to hypothetical (currently non-existent) situations? Let's say I'm pondering the rights of a person who is put in a suspended state through a time machine, for example.

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Philosophers love to talk about hypothetical situations (often called thought experiments). Usually, we use thought experiments to help us draw distinctions or isolate intuitions that would be muddled or difficult to discern were we to limit our discussions to the actual world.

Here is a nice example. There are a number of different views about what makes a person's life go better for that person--about what contributes to a person's well-being. Some philosophers think it is the satisfaction of that person's informed desires that contributes to his well-being. Others think it is experiences of happiness that make a life go better (regardless of what causes those experiences). How can you tell which view seems more plausible to you? It might help to think of some examples, but that turns out to be rather difficult if you focus on people in the actual world, since people whose informed desires are satisfied tend to be happy. In order to isolate the right intuitions, you may need to consult a thought experiment. This is how Robert Nozick argued for his theory of well-being in his well known book, Anarchy, State and Utopia. There Nozick asks you to imagine a machine that can provide you with the experience of happiness by making you believe that your desires are satisfied. Of course your desires are not actually satisfied; you only believe that they are. Nozick then suggests that you would reject the offer of a life on this sort of "experience machine." And that, he argues, shows that you agree with him that there is more to a good life than experiences of happiness.

Thought experiments like the experience machine pop up throughout philosophical ethics, although not all of them have the flavor of science fiction. (Click here for an answer to a previous question that draws on one of my favorite thought experiments.) Moreover, it's not only in ethics that hypothetical situations play such an important role. You'll find discussions of important thought experiments in areas of philosophy ranging from epistemology (click here for a good one) and metaphysics to the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of personal identity. Sometimes it seems that one can't do philosophy without talking about seemingly outlandish hypothetical situations!

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