[lbo-talk] Philip Mirowski - Social Physicist

[Chris Doss]

If we all had toothaches (agony incarnate, I know from personal experience) from the day we were born (in some hypothetical universe in which we were born with teeth), we would try to get rid of them (because pain really really sucks), but I don't think it would be viewed as a disease. It would be an unpleasant fact of life that we try to ameliorate, like the fact that walking into fire hurts. Pain of course is pain, but is pain unhealthy, a deviation from what it means to be a normally functioning human being (or dog, or whatever)? That's something different.

Really this whole "health equals a maximum of pleasure and minimization of pain" thing logically ends with all of us strapped into boxes with euphoria-enducing chemicals pumped into our veins 24/7. Pure pleasure 24 hours a day.

----- Original Message ----
From: Joanna <123hop at comcast.net>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Sent: Sat, March 6, 2010 5:04:52 AM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Philip Mirowski - Social Physicist

Chris writes

"Disease" does not mean "thing that makes you feel bad." If everybody had MS, it would not be a disease, anymore than aging is a disease.

I don't know Chris: everybody has cavities, yet still we get them filled; aging is seen as a degenerative process; pain hurts and is called pain even when it is socially justified (circumcision)....so I'm not convinced by the relativistic stuff.

joanna

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