In reference to question 1655: "How come pain is in the hand, an arm distance

In reference to question 1655: "How come pain is in the hand, an arm distance

In reference to question 1655: "How come pain is in the hand, an arm distance away, but the pain processing is in the brain? I don't feel my hand in the brain, I feel it at 40cms away from my eyes, on the keyboard." I'd have thought that there might have been some consideration in the response to the location of nerves in hand. We can have cuts, say, on parts of the body that are low in nerve density and have no feeling of pain at all. Or if the nerves are severed somehow, then there is no sensation or "projection by the brain" of the pain. Is not the nervous system an extension of the brain? It's made of the same material. Pain and throbbing in the hand is then located in the hand and of course acknowledged by and registered in the cortex for any subsequent actions that may be required. Would this mean a redefinition of "brain"? Perhaps some brain processing is more "distributed" in nature and an end to the "brains in a vat" models...

Read another response by Joseph Levine
Read another response about Mind
Print