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Old 07-07-2010, 01:33 PM   #744
TimMason
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: Pontoise, France
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Pain.

In a world in which there were no pain, people might undertake risky activities that would end in their death or injury. They might harbour fatal diseases, and not see the doctor in time to do anything about it. They might repeatedly bang their heads against the wall and incur irreversible brain injury.

Can people seek pain deliberately? Obviously, masochists do so. But you don't have to be a masochist. Athletes will put their bodies under considerable stress in order to win the game. No pain, no gain. For myself,when I have back pain I do certain exercises which involve my going into the pain, moving so that it becomes more acute. After I've done this, the original pain is lessened: I have bargained a few instants intense pain against a longer period without chronic pain.

Can I want another's pain? Again, the world of sports suggests that I can: the trainer subjects the athletes under her benign control to painful exercises. In warfare, an officer may send his soldiers into situations that are bound to end in their deaths.

These examples involve arguably willing subjects. What about the unwilling? Well, we accept that a country may conscript soldiers during wartime, and even that people who try to avoid conscription should be punished. So clearly some of us, at least, are willing to agree that pain inflicted against someone's will is morally justifiable.

What about inflicting pain on animals? Obviously since time immemorial humans have done so. It is said that hunter-gatherers demand the permission of their prey before thrusting their spears into its body - although Colin Turnbull reported that the rainforest peoples that he spied on had no such compunction. Nevertheless, it is probably true that we are far more brutal to the animals we eat than our uncaged ancestors were. Most people probably manage to remain unaware of our daily holocausts.
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