8 - From a neurophilosophy of pain to a neuroethics of pain care

Summary

Every sentient being knows what is meant by pain, but the true significance of pain eludes the most sapient. For philosophers, pain is a problem of metaphysics … for clinicians a symptom to be understood and an ill to be relieved.

C. F. Illingworth (1941)

THE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROPHENOMENOLOGY OF PAIN

The problem of pain

If the profession and practices of pain therapeutics are to be focally dedicated to right and good care of those in pain, then it is imperative to (1) pursue knowledge of the mechanisms and effects of the disorder that has rendered them to be patients, and (2) recognize and acknowledge that the uniqueness of pain as sensation and experience is inextricably bound to these neural event(s) (Giordano 2006). In this chapter I argue that these facts establish the progressive epistemological basis for a neurophilosophy of pain that both informs and sustains the direction for ongoing research, and gives rise to a neuroethics of pain care.

Some forty-seven years ago, British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow described what he believed was a deeply entrenched, widening rift between the “two cultures” of modern society: the sciences and the humanities (Snow 1959). Yet, one of the most significant accomplishments of contemporary neuroscience has been to make ardent strides toward what biologist E.O. Wilson calls consilience: “… a jumping together of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork for explanation”.