New researches in Islamic humanities studies

New researches in Islamic humanities studies

Phenomenology of the concept of pain based on Merleau-Ponty's theory of bodily relativity and its relationship with freedom and existential loneliness

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Assistant Professor and Faculty Member, Department of Islamic Studies, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran
10.22034/api.2024.2020761.1005
Abstract
Pain and suffering are inescapable and in conflict with the concept of health. In a contradictory view, while taking the help of the protective mechanism of pain to understand the tissue defect of the body and trying to repair it, one should also try to eliminate pain at the same time. The aim of this article is to explain the sometimes paradoxical characteristics of pain such as indescribability, invisibility, lack of external object, focusing the subject's attention on the body, certainty and skepticism, changeability and stability, spatiality and non-spatiality, generative and destructiveness, and the unity and duality of the subject and object of pain. The phenomenological approach, due to its attention and emphasis on the mental and internal experience of the person involved in pain, considers it as a way of life, experiencing the world and socializing with other people and does not consider it merely a minor disturbance in the specific biological function of the body. This approach, based on the first-person experience of pain, explains the impact of pain on agency, autonomy, goals, ideals, social relationships, individual freedom, one's perception of time, etc. - all of which are components of the lived, not biological, body of the individual. Merleau-Ponty considers the body to be the fundamental basis and condition of human existence. From the perspective of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, human existence is embodied through his perceptual experience through the senses of sight, touch, etc., and any change that occurs in the body and physical capacity transforms the subjectivity and subjectivity of the individual and his relationship with the environment. Therefore, the position of humans as embodied consciousness in Merleau-Ponty's thought requires special attention to the concept of physical pain, which this innovative research addresses.
Keywords

  1. بسته­نگار، مهرنوش؛ قمری، رضوان(1401) گردشگری و معنادرمانی در فلسفه اگزیستانسیالیسم، باغ نظر، سال 19 شماره 112،صص 112-103.
  2. وتلسن، آرنه یوهان(1399) فلسفه درد، ترجمه محمد کریمی، تهران: فرهنگ نشر نو.
  3. -کرل، هاوی(1392) بیماری، ترجمه احسان کیانی­خواه، تهران: نشر گمان.
  4. Bain, D., Corns, J., & Brady, M. (2019). The Philosophy of Pain. London: Routledge.‏
  5. Bastenagar, Mehrnoosh; Qamari, Rezvan (1401) Tourism and meaning therapy in the philosophy of existentialism, Bagh Nazar, year 19, number 112, pp. 112-103.]In Persain[
  6. -Bakan, D) 1968(. Disease, Pain, and Sacrifice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  7. -Cassell, E. J. )2001(. »The phenomenon of suffering and its relationship to pain«. In Handbook of Phenomenology and Medicine, ed. S. K. Toombs, 371–90. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  8. -Cooper.R(2002) »Disease«. Studies in History and Philosohy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.33:263-82.
  9. -Coucerio-Bueno, J. C.)2009(.»The phenomenology of pain: An experience of life«.In Phenomenology and Existentialism in the Twentieth Century, ed. A.-T. Tymieniecka,295–307. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Pain (pp. 17-28). Routledge.‏
  10. Cutter, B. (2017).»Pain and representation«. In The Routledge handbook of philosophy of pain(pp. 29-39). Routledge.‏
  11. De Vignemont, F & Jacob,P.(2012).»What is it like to feel another's pain?«. Philosophy of science79(2), 295-316.‏
  12. ‏- Grahek, N.(2007).Feeling Pain and Being in Pain. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  13. -ardcastle, V. G. (2017). »A brief and potted overview on the philosophical theories of pain«. In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Pain(pp. 17-28). Routledge
  14. -International Association for the Study of Pain.)2014(. IASP Taxonomy [On-line]. Available: http://www.iasp- lpain.org/Education/Content.aspx? ItemNumber=1698 (accessed June 17, 2014).
  15. -Kaufman, R. (1985). »Is the concept of pain incoherent?«. The Southern journal of philosophy23(2), 279.‏
  16. Jackson, P. L., Brunet, E., Meltzoff, A. N., & Decety, J. (2006). »Empathy examined through the neural mechanisms involved in imagining how I feel versus how you feel pain«. Neuropsychologia44(5), 752-761.
  17. Karel, Havi (1392) Disease, translated by Ehsan Kianikhah, Tehran: Goman publishing. .]In Persain[
  18. -Leder, D. (2016). »The experiential paradoxes of pain«. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy41(5), 444-460.‏
  19. Leknes, S., & Bastian, B. (2014). »The benefits of pain«. Review of Philosophy and Psychology5, 57-70.‏ DOI 10.1007/s13164-014-0178-3
  20. -Merleau-Ponty, M. )1962( Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. C. Smith. New Jersey: Routledge.
  21. -Merleau-Ponty,M.(1964). The primacy of perception: And other essays on phenomenological psychology, the philosophy of art, history, and. politics politics Northwestern University Press.‏
  22. Proust, M. (1993). Time Regained: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. VI. Edited by D. J. Enright and J.Kilmartin.
  23. Sartre, J. P. (2015).»Being and nothingness.«Central Works of Philosophy v4: Twentieth Century: Moore to Popper4, 155.‏
  24. -Sartre, J. P. (2001). Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings. Psychology Press.‏
  25. -Scarry, E. (2020). The body in pain: The making and unmaking of the world. In The Body(pp. 324-326). Routledge.‏& Kegan Paul.
  26. -Vetlesen, A,J(1399) Philosophy of pain, translated by Mohammad Karimi, Tehran: Farhang New Publishing. .]In Persain[
  27. -Wyller,T(2005)»Place of pain in life«, The Royal Institute of Philosophy:80,pp385-393. Philosophy | Cambridge Core. DOI: 10.1017/S0031819105000355, Published online: 13 October 2005.