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Objective Suffering: What is it? What Could it be?
1Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford, CA, USA.
Summary
This essay explores the subjective versus objective nature of suffering. It proposes that suffering is the experienced gap between reality and desired states, impacting bioethics and personal values.
Area of Science:
- Bioethics
- Philosophy of Medicine
Background:
- The nature of suffering is debated: is it subjective (personal experience) or objective (natural phenomenon)?
- This distinction has significant ethical and political implications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To clarify the subjective versus objective debate in suffering scholarship.
- To examine the history of objectivity and Eric Cassell's theory of suffering.
Main Methods:
- Historical analysis of the concept of objectivity.
- Philosophical examination of Eric Cassell's theory of suffering.
Main Results:
- Suffering scholarship lacks a clear definition.
- Eric Cassell's theory offers insights into suffering's nature.
Conclusions:
- A novel, tentative definition of suffering is proposed.
- Suffering is defined as the experience of a gap between how things are and how they ought to be.
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