Pain Linguistics

A Case for Pluralism

Bibliographic Data

ID4352186
AuthorsSabrina Coninx (0000-0003-1209-4609, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Pascale Willemsen (0000-0002-4563-1397, University of Zurich), Kara Reuter (0000-0003-2404-1619, University of Zurich)
Year2023
Volume74
Issue1
Pages145-168
Publication date2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pq/pqad048
OpenAlexW4366451350
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited33

The most common approach to understanding the semantics of the concept of pain is third-person thought experiments. By contrast, the most frequent and most relevant uses of the folk concept of pain are from a first-person perspective in conversational settings. In this paper, we use a set of linguistic tools to systematically explore the semantics of what people communicate when reporting pain from a first-person perspective. Our results suggest that only a pluralistic view can do justice to the way we talk about pain from a first-person perspective: The semantic content of the folk concept of pain consists of information about both an unpleasant feeling and a disruptive bodily state. Pain linguistics thus provides new insights into ordinary pain language and poses an interesting challenge to the dominant unitary views of pain

Cognitive psychology · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Feeling · Linguistics · Perspective (graphical · Pluralism (philosophy · Semantics (computer science · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Unitary state · Action Observation and Synchronization · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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