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Single Idea 3256

[from 'The View from Nowhere' by Thomas Nagel, in 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / f. Good as pleasure ]

Full Idea

The objective badness of pain is not some mysterious further property that all pains have, but just the fact that there is reason for anyone capable of viewing the world objectively to want it to stop.

Gist of Idea

Pain doesn't have a further property of badness; it gives a reason for its avoidance

Source

Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], VIII.2)

Book Reference

Nagel,Thomas: 'The View from Nowhere' [OUP 1989], p.144


A Reaction

Presumably all pains (e.g. of grief and of toothache) have something in common, to qualify as pains. It must be more than being disliked, because we can dislike a food.