Pain's Evils

Utilitas ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADAM SWENSON
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Painful Sensation ◽  
The Way

The traditional accounts of pain's intrinsic badness assume a false view of what pains are. Insofar as they are normatively significant, pains are not just painful sensations. A pain is a composite of a painful sensation and a set of beliefs, desires, emotions and other mental states. A pain's intrinsic properties can include inter alia depression, anxiety, fear, desires, feelings of helplessness and the pain's meaning. This undermines the traditional accounts of pain's intrinsic badness. Pain is intrinsically bad in two distinct and historically unnoticed ways. First, most writers hold that pain's intrinsic badness lies either in its unpleasantness or in its being disliked. Given my wider conception of pain, I believe it is both. Pain's first intrinsic evil lies in a conjunction of all the traditional candidates for its source. Pain's second intrinsic evil lies in the way it necessarily undermines the self-control necessary for intrinsic goods like autonomy.

Self-Control

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-122
Author(s):  
Maura Tumulty
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Personal Character ◽  
The Way

Some philosophers distinguish between judgmental control (or rational control) and merely managerial self-control—particularly with respect to our control of our mental states. States like desire are normatively supposed to disappear whenever we sincerely endorse judgments in tension with them. (I am not supposed to continue wanting to smoke after I sincerely judge smoking to be bad for me.) When such states prove recalcitrant—when they resist judgmental control—we can apply to ourselves methods that also work when we use them on others. However, some forms of merely managerial control are also essentially first-personal in character. Investigating their first-personal character explains why some experiences can feel alien to us in the way some of our desires can—even though we don’t usually expect that our experiences will bend to our judgments.

scholarly journals Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (Treasury of Metaphysics with Self-Commentary)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Hanner
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Mental States ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Theories Of Mind ◽  
Sentient Beings ◽  
The Way

The Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (Treasury of Metaphysics with Self-Commentary) is a pivotal treatise on early Buddhist thought composed around the 4th or 5th century by the Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu. This work elucidates the buddha’s teachings as synthesized and interpreted by the early Buddhist Sarvāstivāda school (“the theory that all [factors] exist”), while recording the major doctrinal polemics that developed around them, primarily those points of contention with the Sautrāntika system of thought (“followers of the scriptures”). Employing the methodology and terminology of the Buddhist Abhidharma system, the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya offers a detailed analysis of fundamental doctrines, such as early Buddhist theories of mind, cosmology, the workings of karman, meditative states and practices, and the metaphysics of the self. One of its unique features is the way it presents the opinions of a variety of Buddhist and Brahminical schools that were active in classical India in Vasubandhu’s time. The work contains nine chapters (the last of which is considered to have been appended to the first eight), which proceed from a description of the unawakened world via the path and practices that are conducive to awakening and ultimately to the final spiritual attainments which constitute the state of awakening. In its analysis of the unawakened situation, it thus covers the elements which make up the material and mental world of sentient beings, the wholesome and unwholesome mental states that arise in their minds, the structure of the cosmos, the metaphysics of action (karman) and the way it comes into being, and the nature of dispositional attitudes and dormant mental afflictions. In its treatment of the path and practices that lead to awakening, the treatise outlines the Sarvāstivāda understanding of the methods of removing defilements through the realization of the four noble truths and the stages of spiritual cultivation. With respect to the awakened state, the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya gives a detailed description of the different types of knowledge and meditational states attained by practitioners who reach the highest stages of the path.

scholarly journals The Complex Relation of Self-determination to Destiny in Oedipus Tyrannos

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Ruoqi Li
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Fundamental Significance ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Way

<p>Oedipus Rex, one of the three famed Theban tragedies by the Greek dramatist Sophocles, vividly portrays the complex and often troubling theme of humanity’s relationship to fate. By detailing the way in which Oedipus, king of Thebes, is reduced by the cruelty of predestination into a puppet with no semblance of control over the course of his own life, Sophocles seems to cast doubt on, not only the effectiveness, but also the meaning of self-control. Thus, freedom of choice, humanity’s final assertion of independence, appears to dissolve into hollow mockery. But even then, Sophocles confirms the fundamental significance of the self-knowledge and dignity that comes from struggling against tyrannical destiny. It is this dignity that sustains king Oedipus through his terrible ordeal so that he comes out of it tortured but not destroyed. It is also this elevation that adds to a tale of endless victimization a whole new dimension of complexity and imbues the words with a touch of tragic and transfiguring sublimity.</p>

scholarly journals TOKOH BHIMA DALAM TEKS DEWA RUCI (Kajian Teologi Hindu)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 297
Author(s):  
I Komang Widiana ◽  
Ngakan Ketut Juni ◽  
Jro Ayu Ningrat
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
The Way

<p><em>Dewa Ruci text tells of the Bhima character's journey in running his swadarma as a disciple of Master Drona to fulfill the task of seeking tirtha amerta pawitra. From the story contained in the Dewa Ruci’s Text has a different phenomenon or contradictions between Bhima-Drona with tirtha amerta pawitra. Thus a more in-depth study of the character, essence and religiosity of Bhima's characters on his journey in the literary works of the Dewa Ruci Text is required. Based on these descriptions, in this study Bhima figures on the Dewa Ruci Text as the object of research, with the title "Bhima In the Text of Dewa Ruci (Hindu Theological Studies).  </em></p><p><em>The results obtained in this study, that the structure that builds the Text of Dewa Ruci consists of synopsis, figure, incident, plot, background, theme and message. While the characters possessed by Bhima characters in Text of Dewa Ruci include obedient characters, ego and arrogant characters, strong character, honest character, unyielding character, knight character, wise character, and diligent character. The essence of Bhima's release in the Text of Dewa Ruci is contained in the discourse given by Hyang Dewa Ruci to Bhima, that all living beings must always be conscious of the self according to the way they choose based on karma (action), jnana (knowledge) and dharma. Thus, it will guide man to unite with the highest essence. The religiosity of the Bhima figures is reflected in Bhima journey which is a process of self-control and submission. In addition, the Bhima character's journey also reflects the holy journey that sanctifies itself so that he is able to meet with Hyang Dewa Ruci, in other words Bhima journey is a form of thirtayatra. As well as other theological teachings contained in the Text of Dewa Ruci is the existence of the concept of pramana as a concept that supports living things. By knowing this knowledge is expected Bhima as human depiction can reach moksartham jagadhitaya.</em></p>

Relying on the self-control of instrumental others

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grainne Fitzsimons ◽  
Catherine Shea ◽  
Christy Zhou ◽  
Michelle vanDellen
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Control

Taking the "self" out of self control: What dogs can teach us about inhibiting behavior

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Miller ◽  
Kristina F. Pattison ◽  
Rebecca Rayburn-Reeves ◽  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Thomas Zentall
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Control

Vérités et Mensonges

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-224
Author(s):  
Erik Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Self ◽  
Faithful Representation ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Concrete Reality ◽  
Hermeneutic Process ◽  
The Way

This is a survey of some of the problems surrounding imperial panegyric. It includes discussions of both the theory and practice of imperial praise. The evidence is derived from readings of Cicero, Quintilian, Pliny, the Panegyrici Latini, Menander Rhetor, and Julian the Apostate. Of particular interest is insincere speech that would be appreciated as insincere. What sort of hermeneutic process is best suited to texts that are politically consequential and yet relatively disconnected from any obligation to offer a faithful representation of concrete reality? We first look at epideictic as a genre. The next topic is imperial praise and its situation “beyond belief” as well as the self-positioning of a political subject who delivers such praise. This leads to a meditation on the exculpatory fictions that these speakers might tell themselves about their act. A cynical philosophy of Caesarism, its arbitrariness, and its constructedness abets these fictions. Julian the Apostate receives the most attention: he wrote about Caesars, he delivered extant panegyrics, and he is also the man addressed by still another panegyric. And in the end we find ourselves to be in a position to appreciate the way that power feeds off of insincerity and grows stronger in its presence.

Stable neural representations of mental states across target people and stimulus modalities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam E. Weaverdyck ◽  
Mark Allen Thornton ◽  
Diana Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Self ◽  
Similarity Analysis ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Conceptual Core ◽  
Stimulus Modalities ◽  
Huge Variety

Each individual experiences mental states in their own idiosyncratic way, yet perceivers are able to accurately understand a huge variety of states across unique individuals. How do they accomplish this feat? Do people think about their own anger in the same ways as another person’s? Is reading about someone’s anxiety the same as seeing it? Here, we test the hypothesis that a common conceptual core unites mental state representations across contexts. Across three studies, participants judged the mental states of multiple targets, including a generic other, the self, a socially close other, and a socially distant other. Participants viewed mental state stimuli in multiple modalities, including written scenarios and images. Using representational similarity analysis, we found that brain regions associated with social cognition expressed stable neural representations of mental states across both targets and modalities. This suggests that people use stable models of mental states across different people and contexts.

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