Pain vs Pleasure
Different Interpretations Dualism/Behaviorism for Pain and Pleasure
People have a difficult time accepting that emotions as well as sensations exist on a continuous basis. Generally one type of emotion must exist and be experiential and the other polar opposite emotion must also exist and be experiential. This means you cannot have pleasure without pain, and that you cannot have pain without pleasure.
People seem to be under the impression that an eternal pleasurable experience is possible without any reference to pain whatsoever, this being a state of eternal and sensual bliss. People believe this is possible without giving it too much thought. Surely we have all had painful experiences, but also pleasurable experiences, why not have a state where one exists without the other. Many people believe you can only really experience pleasure or pain, at any one moment in time and not both simultaneously. However, I think you can experience both at the same time for example a woman in labor could feel pain and pleasure as she has a contraction and starts delivery. Although choosing the better experience of ‘pleasure’ for all eternity, seems plausible and doable.
The dualistic approach begins to break down when pleasure as well as pain, while not being quantifiable is qualitative and has properties that can easily be described. Some things are extremely pleasurable, some things are moderately pleasurable, some things are relatively pleasurable, and some things are just ok. On the other hand some things are extremely painful, some things are moderately painful and some things are only mildly painful. As one can see, the sensations of pleasure and pain exist on a continuum with an almost infinite amount of variations of ”in-between” states.
If somehow one were able to achieve a state where you only ever felt one very specific kind of pleasure, one would not and could not comprehend any other state of less or more pleasure, or pain for that matter because you have
People have a difficult time accepting that emotions as well as sensations exist on a continuous basis. Generally one type of emotion must exist and be experiential and the other polar opposite emotion must also exist and be experiential. This means you cannot have pleasure without pain, and that you cannot have pain without pleasure.
People seem to be under the impression that an eternal pleasurable experience is possible without any reference to pain whatsoever, this being a state of eternal and sensual bliss. People believe this is possible without giving it too much thought. Surely we have all had painful experiences, but also pleasurable experiences, why not have a state where one exists without the other. Many people believe you can only really experience pleasure or pain, at any one moment in time and not both simultaneously. However, I think you can experience both at the same time for example a woman in labor could feel pain and pleasure as she has a contraction and starts delivery. Although choosing the better experience of ‘pleasure’ for all eternity, seems plausible and doable.
The dualistic approach begins to break down when pleasure as well as pain, while not being quantifiable is qualitative and has properties that can easily be described. Some things are extremely pleasurable, some things are moderately pleasurable, some things are relatively pleasurable, and some things are just ok. On the other hand some things are extremely painful, some things are moderately painful and some things are only mildly painful. As one can see, the sensations of pleasure and pain exist on a continuum with an almost infinite amount of variations of ”in-between” states.
If somehow one were able to achieve a state where you only ever felt one very specific kind of pleasure, one would not and could not comprehend any other state of less or more pleasure, or pain for that matter because you have