Pain : New Essays on Its Nature and the Methodology of Its Study

Leading philosophers and scientists examine the puzzles of pain and consider how the study of pain might help us to have a better understanding of the larger issues of consciousness and psychological research.

When we say we feel pain, we seem to be reporting the perception of something; but what is the object of perception - a physical condition or a mental occurrence?

If pain is a subjective and emotional experience, how can it be studied according to the rigorous demands of objective scientific methodology?

The study of pain and its puzzles offer opportunities for understanding such larger issues as the place of consciousness in the natural order and the methodology of psychological research.

In this book, leading philosophers and scientists offer a wide range of views on how to conceptualise and study pain.

The essays reflect much of current thinking on the subject from a metaphysical, epistemological, or methodological - rather than an ethical, religious, or aesthetic - perspective.

They examine foundational questions about pain and try to solve the puzzles it poses for philosophers as well as scientists.The essays in Pain include discussions of perceptual and representationalist accounts; methodological and theoretical issues in the science of pain; the question of whether animals feel pain; the affective dimension of pains; first-person methods of gathering data that can be integrated with standard third-person methods; and the philosophical and scientific justification of such integrative attempts.