The problem is that by this logic, maybe rocks feel pain. Maybe the atmosphere feels pain when we pollute it. Maybe the ghost of Jimmy Johnson who lives in my attic feels the pain of loneliness. "Maybe it feels pain but we don't know about it" is a completely meaningless and unactionable observation. Without evidence that it feels pain, we can only assume that it does not.
But as we've already covered, pain isn't a response to a negative stimulus. My reflexive reaction to touching something hot is not a reaction to pain. As you said, we don't fully understand where pain comes from, so who's to say rocks can't feel it?
I definitely like discussing and thinking about this, but my premise is that pain, or at least some unpleasant sensation, does occur as a response to negative stimuli.
Plants show a response to negative stimuli, therefore maybe they feel some kind of unpleasant sensation.
Bringing rocks into it doesn't jive with either of our definitions of pain and is being a bit ludicrous.
The point I'm making is that pain happens in the brain. No brain no pain. If you bring plants into it, you disconnect pain from the brain and get into the realm of "ok, maybe pain is just magic"
The problem is that by this logic, maybe rocks feel pain. Maybe the atmosphere feels pain when we pollute it. Maybe the ghost of Jimmy Johnson who lives in my attic feels the pain of loneliness. "Maybe it feels pain but we don't know about it" is a completely meaningless and unactionable observation. Without evidence that it feels pain, we can only assume that it does not.
No, because plants and trees respond to negative stimuli. Do rocks? Are ghosts real? These aren't real equivalencies and you know it
But as we've already covered, pain isn't a response to a negative stimulus. My reflexive reaction to touching something hot is not a reaction to pain. As you said, we don't fully understand where pain comes from, so who's to say rocks can't feel it?
I definitely like discussing and thinking about this, but my premise is that pain, or at least some unpleasant sensation, does occur as a response to negative stimuli.
Plants show a response to negative stimuli, therefore maybe they feel some kind of unpleasant sensation.
Bringing rocks into it doesn't jive with either of our definitions of pain and is being a bit ludicrous.
The point I'm making is that pain happens in the brain. No brain no pain. If you bring plants into it, you disconnect pain from the brain and get into the realm of "ok, maybe pain is just magic"