Puzzling pain conditions: how philosophy can help us understand them.

CONTEXT Pain is a complicated area of inquiry. To progress in our scientific understanding of the topic, it may be useful to learn how other disciplines are grappling with the subject. Philosophy is one discipline actively engaged in trying to understand pain. OBJECTIVE We present one philosophical view of pain to help broaden the understanding of pain in those who are trained to look at it from a biomedical perspective. DISCUSSION One current philosophical theory of pain is the externalist perceptual theory of pain. This theory states that pain is a form of perception and can be likened to other perceptions, for example, visual, tactile, etc. The way a pain feels can be explained as the relationship between this perception and some bodily damage occurring. and just as other perceptions can be mistaken, such as in a visual illusion, pain can also be inaccurate. We explore how the theory deals with puzzling conditions such as phantom limb pain, complex regional pain syndrome, and allodynia. We contrast this view with a competing theory of pain and briefly consider how these philosophical views may impact clinical medicine.