RobbBB, in what sense can phenomenal agony be an “illusion”? If your pain becomes so bad that abstract thought is impossible, does your agony—or the “illusion of agony”—somehow stop? The same genes, same neurotransmitters, same anatomical pathways and same behavioural responses to noxious stimuli are found in humans and the nonhuman animals in our factory-farms. A reasonable (but unproven) inference is that factory-farmed nonhumans endure misery—or the “illusion of misery” as the eliminativist puts it—as do abused human infants and toddlers.
RobbBB, in what sense can phenomenal agony be an “illusion”? If your pain becomes so bad that abstract thought is impossible, does your agony—or the “illusion of agony”—somehow stop? The same genes, same neurotransmitters, same anatomical pathways and same behavioural responses to noxious stimuli are found in humans and the nonhuman animals in our factory-farms. A reasonable (but unproven) inference is that factory-farmed nonhumans endure misery—or the “illusion of misery” as the eliminativist puts it—as do abused human infants and toddlers.