ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the connections between pain and rationality in terms of these two sorts of reasons that pain plausibly provides. Pain plays many roles in our mental lives. It motivates, protects, and is often a source of negative moral and pragmatic value. One of the most important reasons for thinking of pain as importantly connected to human rationality is that experienced pains seem to provide reasons to the subjects in whom they occur–reasons that can be both practically motivating and rationally justifying. A different possible attraction of motivational internalism about pain is that such views make available an especially simple explanation of the apparent fact that pains do seem to come with practical motivation. When a young child has a modest fall or slight injury, parents often suggest an evaluation of the pain itself, in terms of the appropriate amount of hurt the noxious stimuli should have generated.
