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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Journal | Volume | Article

143047

Imperative content and the painfulness of pain

Manolo Martínez

pp. 67-90

Abstract

Representationalist theories of phenomenal consciousness have problems in accounting for pain, for at least two reasons. First of all, the negative affective phenomenology of pain (its painfulness) does not seem to be representational at all. Secondly, pain experiences are not transparent to introspection in the way perceptions are. This is reflected, e.g. in the fact that we do not acknowledge pain hallucinations. In this paper, I defend that representationalism has the potential to overcome these objections. Defenders of representationalism have tried to analyse every kind of phenomenal character in terms of indicative contents. But there is another possibility: Affective phenomenology, in fact, depends on imperative representational content. This provides a satisfactory solution to the aforementioned difficulties.

Publication details

Published in:

(2011) Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (1).

Pages: 67-90

DOI: 10.1007/s11097-010-9172-0

Full citation:

Martínez Manolo (2011) „Imperative content and the painfulness of pain“. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (1), 67–90.