This is made in philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

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Philosophy bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.

This week's Philosophy Bites is more pain than pleasure.

There are several intriguing philosophical puzzles about pain.

Where, for example, do we experience it? If I cut my finger,

it's the pain in my finger or in my brain. What does pain reveal about consciousness?

It was a pleasure to discuss these questions with Michael Ty of the University of Texas.

Michael Tyne, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Hello, nice to be here.

We're going to focus on pain.

Obviously that's an important topic in most people's lives

from an experiential point of view, but what's the philosophical issue about pain?

I doubt that there's one philosophical problem of pain but I'm interested in pain as a

conscious state and in understanding how to locate the characteristic conscious

feel of pains within a world which I think as a whole is purely material.

So somebody steps on my toe, I feel the pain, I'm a conscious pain suffering individual. I don't understand what the

philosophical problem is there.

Well, if someone steps on your toe, then you feel pain and you feel it in a particular location in your toe and there's a characteristic

phenomenal aspect or subjective aspect to your experience, one that distinguishes it from

feeling an itch in your toe or a tickle or whatever.

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