Thursday, September 23, 2021

On replacing pain

 Doctors have actually tried to replace pain in the human body with some other kind of warning system. It doesn't work. The philosopher David Hume said that God could have given us something less unpleasant than pain in order to warn us the way pain does but is less unpleasant. I remember talking to someone who did pain research but who was going into philosophy, and he told me that the work of pain can't be done without the awfulness of pain. 

3 comments:

One Brow said...

Doctors have actually tried to replace pain in the human body with some other kind of warning system.

I have no idea to what you are referring.

Victor Reppert said...

This was done for leprosy patients.

https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Nobody-Wants-Paul-Brand/dp/0060170204

One Brow said...

I've never heard of that before. Thank you.