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Suffering, or ''pain'' in this sense,See the entry 'Pleasure' in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , which begins with this paragraph: "Pleasure, in the inclusive usages most important in moral psychology, ethical theory, and the studies of mind, includes all joy and gladness — all our feeling good, or happy. It is often contrasted with similarly inclusive pain, or suffering, which is similarly thought of as including all our feeling bad." is a basic Affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with Harm or Threat of harm in an individual. It constitutes the negative basis of affective states (emotions, feelings, moods, sentiments), while Pleasure or Happiness constitutes the positive basis. ]]
All Sentient beings suffer during their lives, in diverse manners, and often dramatically. No field of human activity deals with the whole subject of suffering, but many are concerned with its nature and processes, its origin and causes, its meaning and significance, its related personal, social, and cultural behaviors, its remedies, management, and uses. PHILOSOPHICAL, ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES Hedonism , as an ethical theory, claims that good and bad consist ultimately in pleasure and pain. Many hedonists, such as Epicurus , emphasize avoiding suffering over pursuing pleasure, because they find that the greatest happiness lies in a tranquil state ( Ataraxia ) free from pain and from the worrisome pursuit or unwelcome consequences of pleasure. For Stoicism , the greatest good lies in reason and virtue, but the soul best reaches it through a kind of indifference ( Apatheia ) to pleasure and pain: as a consequence, this doctrine has become identified with self-control in front of even the worst sufferings. developed such a view in his concepts of 'speciesism' and 'painism'. Peter Singer , with his book Animal Liberation and other writings, represents the leading edge of this kind of utilitarianism. Another doctrine related to the relief of suffering is Humanitarianism (see also Humanitarian Aid and Humane Society ). Pessimism , as Arthur Schopenhauer famously describes, holds this world to be the worst possible, plagued with worsening and unstoppable suffering. Schopenhauer recommends to take refuge in things like art, philosophy, loss of the will to live, and tolerance toward 'fellow-sufferers'. Friedrich Nietzsche , first influenced by Schopenhauer, developed afterward quite another attitude, exalting the will to power, despising weak compassion or pity, and recommending to embrace wilfully the 'eternal return' of the greatest sufferings. Philosophy Of Pain focuses on Pain as a sensation, but much of its content concerns also suffering in general. RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES Suffering plays an important role in most religions, regarding matters like consolation or relief, moral conduct (do no harm, help the afflicted), spiritual advancement ( Penance , Ascetism ), and ultimate destiny ( Salvation , Damnation , Hell ). Theodicy deals with the Problem Of Evil , which is the difficulty of reconciling an omnipotent and benevolent god with evil. People often consider that the worst form of evil consists in extreme suffering, especially in innocent children or in beings created ultimately for being tormented without end (see Problem Of Hell ). The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are about Dukkha , a term usually translated as suffering. The Four Noble Truths state (1) the nature of suffering, (2) its cause, (3) its cessation, and (4) the way leading to its cessation (which is the Noble Eightfold Path ). Buddhism considers liberation from suffering as basic for leading a holy life and attaining Nirvana . Hinduism holds that suffering follows naturally from personal negative behaviors in one’s current life or in a past life (see Karma ). One must accept suffering as a just consequence and as an opportunity for spiritual progress. Thus the soul or true self, which is eternally free of any suffering, may come to manifest itself in the person, who then achieves liberation ( Moksha ). Abstinence from causing pain or harm to other beings ( Ahimsa ) is a central tenet of Hinduism. The Bible's Book Of Job reflects on the nature and meaning of suffering. Pope John Paul II wrote "On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering". On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering . This meaning revolves around the notion of Redemptive Suffering . ARTS AND LITERATURE PERSPECTIVES Artistic and literary works often engage with suffering, sometimes at great cost to their creators or performers. The Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database offers a list of such works under the categories art, film, literature, and theater. SOCIAL SCIENCES APPROACHES ''Social suffering'', according to Arthur Kleinman and others, describes "collective and individual human suffering associated with life conditions shaped by powerful social forces."Social suffering. Daedalus. Proc Amer Acad Arts Sciences 1996;125(1). Such suffering is an increasing concern in medical anthropology, ethnography, mass media analysis, and Holocaust studies, says Iain Wilkinson,Iain Wilkinson, ''Suffering - A Sociological Introduction'', Polity Press, 2005 who is developing a sociology of suffering . The Encyclopedia Of World Problems And Human Potential is a monumental work by the Union Of International Associations . It has three core parts: World Problems (30,000 items), Human Potential: Transformation and Values (7,000 items), Strategies - Actions – Solutions (35,000 items). As it says in its Notes and Commentaries : “the most fundamental entry common to the core parts is that of pain (or suffering)” and “common to the core parts is the learning dimension of new understanding or insight in response to suffering”. Ralph Siu , an American author, urged in 1988 the "creation of a new and vigorous academic discipline, called panetics, to be devoted to the study of the infliction of suffering."Ralph G.H. Siu, ''Panetics − The Study of the Infliction of Suffering'', Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 28 No. 3, Summer 1988. The International Society for Panetics was founded in 1991 to study and develop ways to reduce the infliction of human suffering by individuals acting through professions, corporations, governments, and other social groups. In economics, the following notions relate not only to the matters suggested by their positive appellations, but to the matter of suffering as well: Well-being Or Quality Of Life , Welfare Economics , Gross National Happiness , Genuine Progress Indicator . " Pain And Suffering " is a legal term that refers to the mental anguish or physical pain endured by a plaintiff as a result of injury for which the plaintiff seeks redress. BIOLOGICAL, NEUROLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS Suffering and pleasure, the former being called negative and the latter positive, are the two affects, or hedonic tones, or of threats, it motivates Coping ( Fight Or Flight , Escapism ), and as a Punishment it reinforces certain behaviors. Despite its initial disrupting nature, suffering contribute to organize meaning in an individual's world and psyche. In turn, meaning determines how individuals or societies experience and deal with suffering. Thus, in the end, persons or cultures differ in their affectivity and behavior, for instance from the most oversensitive to the most insensitive. Many brain structures and physiological processes take part in the occurrence of suffering: (list to come). Various hypothesis try to account for unpleasant experiences. One of these, the ''pain overlap theory'' Pain Overlap Theory takes note, thanks to neuroimaging studies, that the Cingulate Cortex fires up when the brain feels unpleasantness from experimentally induced social distress OR physical pain as well. It therefore proposes that physical pain and social pain (i.e., two radically differing kinds of suffering) share a common phenomenological and neural basis. According to , promote replacing the pain/pleasure axis with robot-like response to noxious stimuliSee Vanity Fair interview with Pearce or with gradients of bliss,See Life in the Far North - An information-theoretic perspective on Heaven through genetic engineering and other technical scientific advances. Hedonistic psychology,Kahneman, D., E. Diener and N. Schwartz (eds.) ''Well-being: The Foundations of Hedonistic Psychology'', Russell Sage Foundation, 1999 Affective Science , and Affective Neuroscience are some of the emerging scientific fields that could in the coming years focus their attention on the phenomenon of suffering. HEALTH CARE APPROACHES Disease and injury cause suffering in humans and animals. Health Care addresses such suffering in many ways, in Medicine , Clinical Psychology , Psychotherapy , Alternative Medicine , Hygiene , Public Health , and through various Health Care Provider s. Health care approaches to suffering remain highly problematic, according to Eric Cassell , the most cited author on that subject: "The obligation of physicians to relieve human suffering stretches back to antiquity. Despite this fact, little attention is explicitly given to the problem of suffering in medical education, research or practice." Cassell defines suffering as "the state of severe distress associated with events that threaten the intactness of the person."Eric J Cassell, ''The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine'', 2004. Some medical fields nevertheless, like Palliative Care , Pain Management , Oncology or Psychiatry , give more importance to suffering 'as such'. In palliative care, for instance, pioneer Cicely Saunders created the concept of 'total pain' ('total suffering' say now the textbooksSee Existential pain — an entity, a provocation, or a challenge? in Journal of Pain Symptom and Management, Volume 27, Issue 3, Pages 241-250 (March 2004)), which encompasses the whole set of physical and mental distress, discomfort, symptoms, problems, or needs that a patient painfully experiences. RELIEF AND PREVENTION IN COLLECTIVE LIFE Since suffering is such a universal motivating experience, people, when asked, can relate easily their activities to its relief and prevention: farmers, for instance, may claim that they prevent famine, artists that they take our minds off our worries, and teachers that they hand down tools for coping with life hazards. However, in aspects of collective life such as those below, suffering by itself comes often as a forefront concern.
USES OF SUFFERING "But Nature, as we now know, regards ultimately only fitness and not our happiness (Darwin, 1871, p. 298), and does not scruple to use hate, fear, punishment and even war alongside affection in ordering social groups and selecting among them, just as she uses pain as well as pleasure to get us to feed, water and protect our bodies and also in forging our social bonds"Editor’s Introduction, ''Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives'', Leonard D. Katz (editor), Imprint Academic, 2000 (ISBN 090784507X). writes philosopher Leonard D. Katz. People make use of suffering for specific social or personal purposes in many areas of human life:
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