We all feel physical pain, and we immediately reject it as bad. But why? Why do we say to ourselves that physical pain is an unpleasant feeling? Why do we reject physical pain as unpleasant?
Truthfully, next time you feel pain, ask yourself why it is bad. Why is it something that needs to be gotten rid of, unlike other physical sensations? Try next time that you feel physical pain that it does not hurt. Pain does not hurt because it is not good, nor is it bad. It is simply there . It is like any other sensation: not good, not bad, but simply a feeling that is there and we will patiently wait for it to leave. This is a philosophy forum, and this is philosophy. Pain is not bad, but simply there.
Try it. I have, and I have found that I can withstand quite a bit of physical pain, up to a point. If everyone learns how not to feel pain as an unpleasant sensation, we can all get on with our lives much better than if we stopped every time we experienced a pain.
This is not masochism, since masochism is enjoying pain. This is simply ignoring pain, rejecting the idea of it being any kind of sensation that is good or bad. To live life without pain is to live life happier, and to live it by this expression:
Pain drowns other people. I just swim in it.
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"I'm not crazy! Don't call me crazy! I'm just not user-friendly!"
Physical pain is usually the result of damage to bodily functions being reported via nerve impulse to the brain. Pain is not an enemy, but rather a warning. Warnings aren't bad, but they are not meant to be enjoyed.
The process of evolution is not very forgiving of creatures that don't try to do something about pain. Fear of many dangers in nature is a result of pain, and both fear and pain work together in the brain to avoid hazardous situations.
Animals that ignore pain no doubt left the gene pool long ago.
If you're not a Vulcan or a major burn victim ignoring pain is effectively impossible. I don't know why you would want to ignore it anyway, pain is one of the ways in which people learn.
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Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
Pain has a profound effect on the quality of life. It often interferes with our quality of sleep and productivity. It touches daily living, and affects our overall ability to function.
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I am not driven by people’ s praise and I am not slowed down by people’ s criticism.
You only live once. But if you live it right, once is enough. Wrong. We only die once, we live every day!
Make poverty history.
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
I think that pain is a bit tricky....Pain in sexual activity is fun. But pain as in a major illness is quite the opposite. It must involved some kind of control that we could have in pain. In sex, it can be stop...in a terrible illness is not...so we eventually become afraid of pain and consider it bad...when it's actually nature doing it's mechanism.
To the folks that hold strong on "from pain we learn..." well, there is some truth to that...but again, in a terminal illness in which you're suffering from pain...what is there to learn? You gonna die?
basic axioms of this world. we are BUILT to be dislike pain. we, by the confines that define ourselves, are made in such a way as to find pain not preferrable to us. if you try to resist it, at best ull be able to live with it but since at our basis, we are built to reject pain, you will never be impartial to it{if u r, then u have supressed the sensation and hence are not IN pain} . its like asking an anti virus why it wud resist/attack a virus. for sum1 higher up like the programmer, a virus MAY be neither more or less preferrable than the anti virus, but that distinction doesnt exist for the anti virus. the anti virus DEFINES itself by rejecting the virus, that is how it has been made. the only one who can treat pain/non pain, good/bad, dark/light, impartially is sumbody{perhaps god or sumthing} who is truly beyond these concepts. we are not, and hence, we shud not be impartial to them.
Acute pain is the body' s red alert. It provides us with a protective reflex, such as to stop an activity when it causes pain. A finger cut, bruises, etc. are simply a nuisance. However, if acute pain persists, it is a symptom of a disease which needs to be treated and not ignored. It is not simply there. While the biological function of pain is positive, the sensation of pain is not good in itself.
The second basic form of pain is chronic pain, ranging from minor to catastrophic. It does not serve any protective or other biological function.
__________________
I am not driven by people’ s praise and I am not slowed down by people’ s criticism.
You only live once. But if you live it right, once is enough. Wrong. We only die once, we live every day!
Make poverty history.
Lol, I don't think anybody who pretends to love pain has ever felt real pain. I've never had anything worse than an ear infection, but at least I'm not sitting in front of the computer biting myself saying "oh, I'm not effected by this pain...I can ignore it like it's nothing"
Not love pain...simply be not affected by it. Perceive the warning that it is sending you, stop what you are doing that is harming your body, but be able to shut out the residual throbbing pain that keeps coming even after you've taken the warning it is giving you.
__________________
"I'm not crazy! Don't call me crazy! I'm just not user-friendly!"
It's evolution, plain and simple. Pain indicates bodily harm which leads to death. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that natural selection would favor genes that tell the body to respond in an adverse way to pain, because those individuals would survive more numerously than entities that ignored pain.
Most pain isn't potentially fatal, but our adverse reaction to all pain is merely a side-effect to the same responses that do help ensure survival. False positives (a positive being a life-threatening injury), in this case, ensure maximum survival because to err the other direction would be to occasionally underestimate mortal wounds.
It can be construed as something pleasurable, but that requires a willful decision and effort to do so. It's possible, but not the natural programmed reaction to pain.
KMC Community Forums
What makes pain bad?
Feb 28th, 2008 12:24 AM
