How facts matter: On the language condition and the scope of pain in the animal kingdom

Abstract

I agree with Bernard Rollin (in “Some Conceptual and Ethical Concerns About Current Views of Pain”) that it is implausible to hold that linguistic competence is a necessary condition for consciousness of pain. However, Rollin is incorrect to characterize this criterion as insulated from empirical disproof, because the best current theories of phenomenal consciousness that would support the criterion are themselves open to empirical disproof. Although I agree with Rollin that it would be implausible to deny that any nonhuman animals can feel pain, when we look closely at the relevant behavioral and neurophysiological evidence, we see that a good case can be made for saying that invertebrates (with the possible exception of cephalopods) probably cannot feel pain.