Pain and Pleasure: Are they real or just expressions?

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 Hello steemians! Welcome to my blog once again!

In my last post, i talked about the problem of evil. I looked at the different types of evils identified by scholars. I also looked at the question of whether God or man is responsible for the evils in the world. In the article, i threw out a poser whether there is anything evil truly or we simply call things that appear unbearable to human evils and those that are bearable good. That poser simply asked the question of intrinsic or extrinsic nature of good and evil. That is, are things good or bad in themselves. Please click here to read it. 

As controversial as such topic can be, it has gained some attentions in respect to comments. Perhaps people find it really controversial in the real sense!!!! 

However, i have read some responses that shows people who stumbled on the article truly read and understood it. While some are of the opinion that God has nothing to do with the evils in this world, some think good and evils are mere words. 

One response by a reader caught my attention. He wrote:

Good and evil are a mental construct of humans. In nature, there is no concept of good and evil. There is only what is. There is pain and pleasure which can be experienced, but labeling something good or evil is meaningless in Nature.

The above answer tried to remove the idea of God from the whole argument. If the argument is valid, that means all the foundation on which my arguments are built would collapse. 

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This is where the beauty of philosophy comes in. Everybody has the freedom to express his/her opinion as no view or idea is final. Every position held is open to further criticism. Philosophy can be exhausting!!!! Funny but it is the reality and the beauty of the discipline. It gives you room to explore, lead the way, think, philosophize and come up with good and counter claim.

My response to the reply above was:

 Amazing! I really like the angle you look at it from. Also, saying: ''there is no concept of good and evil'' and that there is ''only what is'', it logically implies that there is no concept of pain and pleasure! This means, also, that calling something pain and pleasure is meaningless. Do not forget that the expression of pain and pleasure differs! What causes pain to one might not cause pain to another e.g injection. In philosophy, many topics are open-ended. Open ended because there is no conclusion on any philosophical debate. When you think you have solved the problem, there is always another twist to it just like i did to the pleasure and pain.! This is the beauty of the discipline called Philosophy. 

You are wondering if we can come to any reasonable conclusion if this continues? Yeah! We don't have to! The conclusion is not what matters as far as the argument on ground is concerned but the proofs/evidence we are able to provide to drive home our points. There is what we call thesis, antithesis and synthesis. While people would ordinarily agree that synthesis is the infusion or the middle way of the two - thesis and antithesis, in philosophy, synthesis is itself another thesis because it will open room for further debate and arguments.

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Now to the topic proper, are pleasure and pain real? I would say NO in the sense of reality. Real here mean physical or empirical. We cannot say this is pain or this is pleasure! If i feel headache, i can say i am having headache but cannot show you or anybody the 'headache'. You can only point to where you are feeling the pain but cannot point to it as 'pain'. I would also say YES because they are just expressions of feelings. How do i mean? You will agree with me that same occurrence would not always produce same reaction. A slap on person 'A' face might produce pain while same slap on person 'B' might not result into any pain. 

While some people derive sweetness, a form of pleasure from honey, others do not. Are you surprised or shocked? There are people out there who does not feel the pleasure of sweetness from honey! Honey is tasteless to them. The example of injection i used above is a real too. I have seen people who would not move a bit when they are been injected. In fact, they cannot say when the pin entered them or when it was removed.

My point is, pains and pleasures are expressions of human feelings. They can be said to be subjective or relative depending on who is feeling the pain or pleasure at that particular time but to say they are mere construct of human language i refuse to assert. Another way to look at it is to say the pain a woman in labour room felt while giving birth was mere language!!! Really? May be i can ask a woman in labor room to see how she will thank me with a sweet SLAP!!! 

Pain and pleasure are expressions of human feelings, whether personal, relative or subjective, they are real and can be felt by every human being.

Thanks. Please deconstruct this or give another opinion on whether, pains, pleasures, good or evils are just mere human language or real feeling that cannot be denied by any man.

Its your boy @smyle the philosopher.