This is philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warton.

Philosophy bites is available at W.

W.

philosophy bites.com.

As usual with philosophy bites you're about to experience 15 minutes or so of pure pleasure.

Pleasure is unquestionably one of the good things in life,

but how do we contrast pleasure with other human goods like knowledge or accomplishment?

How do we compare different types of pleasure?

And what is the link between pleasure and happiness?

The American philosopher Robert Nozick imagined an experience machine that could give us whatever

pleasurable feelings we might want, and we wouldn't know whether or not these experiences

were real.

We might believe we were eating a chocolate declare, though the delicious sensation

was actually caused by wires attached to our brain. The question Nozic asks is this,

would you choose a machine over real life? He thinks you wouldn't and

that this shows that pleasure is not as important as thinkers like the late 18th century

British utilitarian Jeremy Bentham believed it to be.

Today our guide around the concept of pleasure is Thomas Herka,

Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.

Tom Herka, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Thanks very much.

It's a pleasure to be here.

...