It seems to me tragedy is matter of audience perspective, a reflection of their sympathies, and of perceiving a narrative. (The audience could be self.)
If you are struck with sudden excruciating pain, with no time to anticipate it, and no brain-space left to reflect on it, does that make it less terrible?
The question of a protozoa is a good one. Does such an organism even have a mental state? (And I suppose that’s all the author of the article meant by “consciousness”… some kind of flow of subjective experience.) I can understand doubt at that level, but insects even have brains.
It seems to me tragedy is matter of audience perspective, a reflection of their sympathies, and of perceiving a narrative. (The audience could be self.)
If you are struck with sudden excruciating pain, with no time to anticipate it, and no brain-space left to reflect on it, does that make it less terrible?
The question of a protozoa is a good one. Does such an organism even have a mental state? (And I suppose that’s all the author of the article meant by “consciousness”… some kind of flow of subjective experience.) I can understand doubt at that level, but insects even have brains.