NATURALISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN AND PHENOMENOLOGY OF PAIN

Abstract

In the last decade, interest in pain has resurfaced within philosophy. However, the chosen perspective is no longer the one assumed a few decades ago (naturalism), but phenomenology. I argue that the reason for this paradigm shift responds to the fact that the attempts to proceed in a naturalistic philosophy of pain are, due to naturalism, contradictory, and cannot satisfy the demands that it has posed itself. I suggest that the phenomenology of pain does not fall into these contradictions, and also presents itself as a solid proposal to offer a coherent philosophy of pain. Finally, I outline the nature of a phenomenology of pain as well as some of its research areas.