Project: The Complexity of Pain and Its Normative Implications

Acronym	COMPAIN (Reference Number: ELSA_NEURON_2023-017)
Project Topic	Current developments in the neurosciences as well as in neurophilosophy have started to treat pain as a complex, heterogeneous or even modular phenomenon, which is also influenced by the environmental setting and other cognitive processes like memory or imagination. This emerging complexity is, however, not sufficiently reflected in (bio)ethics, where pain is mainly treated as something monolithic, that generally ought not to be. Based on this discrepancy, the COMPAIN consortium’s primary research aim is to examine in what way a complex and heterogeneous view of pain in the neurosciences and in neurophilosophy must influence the normative evaluation of pain in (practical) ethics. To achieve this goal, the COMPAIN consortium will, firstly, explore existing ontologies of pain in neuroscience and in philosophy and identify ethically relevant criteria for their evaluation taking into account cultural aspects; secondly, develop a joint scientific ontology of pain which will be validated by surveys with relevant stakeholders in Germany and Taiwan; and, thirdly, normatively evaluate this joint scientific ontology and develop context-sensitive and culturally inclusive recommendations for its implementation in clinical practice.
Network	NEURON Cofund2
Call	ELSA-JTC 2023 "Neuroethics"

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, UKSH Campus Kiel	Coordinator	Germany
2	Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg	Partner	Germany
3	National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University	Partner	Taiwan