Boyko M.E. Qualitative asymmetry of pain and pleasure: from Schopenhauer to Freud

Abstract: This article analyzes the arguments by means of which the Western European philosophers of the XIX century explained the qualitative asymmetry between the pain and pleasure. The anatomical and physiological confirmation of the existence of such asymmetry was acquired only in the XX century: pain represents an independent type of reception with a separate system of conductors and receptors (nociceptors); however, there is no specialized conductors and receptors of pleasure. Thus, the discovery of the qualitative asymmetry of pain and please represents a notable case of the successful philosophical “foresight”. The general philosophical interest contain the following question: why the success was achieved specifically in this area, and why it never gained the due recognition. As the examples of various approaches, the author considers the philosophies of pain and pleasure suggested by A. Schopenhauer, S. Freud, E. von Hartmann, and F. Nietzsche; as well as analyzes their arguments in confirmation of the asymmetry of pain and pleasure, source of doubts and theoretical controversies, and suggests formalization using the mathematical symbolics. The author proves that the recognition of the qualitative asymmetry of pain and pleasure was hindered by the linguistic obstacle – the circumstance, which states that in European languages, the pain and pleasure are the symmetric directions of single modality. This lead to multiple theoretical regressions and controversies in the views of A. Schopenhauer, S. Freud, E. von Hartmann, and F. Nietzsche upon the qualitative asymmetry of pain and pleasure. And therefore, the major philosophical discovery did not gain the due assessment.

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