Actually, I always thought it was pleasure. The pleasure of obtaining nutrition seems to be the driving mechanism of the most primative of mobil species as well as the higher species. Only in our own species do we find a drive for money, land and power.

Pain I believe requires a higher level of consciousness than pleasure. Species other than humans certainly can feel pain, but it`s not clear that many of them can anticipate pain, which is a necessary condition for having pain modify behavior.

The difference between pain and pleasure is that experienced pain is immediately escaped from if possible, whereas experienced pleasure is sought after and reinforced. Therefore, pleasure can operate at a much lower level of consciousness than pain.

In modern society most people spend all their time planning and doing things to avoid pain. Only the fortunate rich and a few others have the opportunity to spend more time pursuing pleasure.
To be biblical, the Garden of Eden was all pleasure. The fall of Adam & Eve is probably coincident with the conscious experience of pain in an allegorical sense- which for me is the only thing that makes sense.

• RE: RE: How did pain evolve? - Evenstar - August 2, 2000 - 07:18 UTC
  • RE: RE: RE: How did pain evolve? - yanniru - August 2, 2000 - 18:37 UTC