[ExI] Circumcision

Anders Sandberg anders at aleph.se
Fri Jun 17 07:56:18 UTC 2016


On 2016-06-16 11:27, BillK wrote:
> I have the feeling that all this philosophising about pain and
> suffering is all very well and good.
> But it will get thrown out as soon as raging toothache, bad migraine
> or gallstone blockage pain arrives.
>
> When you are writhing in pain, screaming for codeine, philosophy
> somehow doesn't seem that important.  ;)

As the Bard wrote, "There was never yet philosopher that could endure 
the toothache patiently".

But actually, when I did have a toothache I tried the pain management 
techniques. Generally, pain is very distracting, but both associative 
and dissociative methods do work. However, they require mental 
processing cycles, so painkillers are very useful if you have other 
things to do.


-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University




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