Pain
Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli, such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting alcohol on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone". Because it is a complex, subjective phenomenon, defining pain has been a challenge. The International Association for the Study of Pain's widely used definition states: "Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage." In medical diagnosis, pain is a symptom.
Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Simple pain medications are useful in 20% to 70% of cases.
Pain (philosophy)
Philosophy of pain may be about suffering in general or more specifically about physical pain. The experience of pain is, due to its seeming universality, a very good portal through which to view various aspects of human life. Discussions in philosophy of mind concerning qualia has given rise to a body of knowledge called philosophy of pain, which is about pain in the narrow sense of physical pain, and which must be distinguished from philosophical works concerning pain in the broad sense of suffering. This article covers both topics.
Historical views of pain
Two near contemporaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, Jeremy Bentham and the Marquis de Sade had very different views on these matters. Bentham saw pain and pleasure as objective phenomena, and defined utilitarianism on that principle. However the Marquis de Sade offered a wholly different view - which is that pain itself has an ethics, and that pursuit of pain, or imposing it, may be as useful and just as pleasurable, and that this indeed is the purpose of the state - to indulge the desire to inflict pain in revenge, for instance, via the law (in his time most punishment was in fact the dealing out of pain). The 19th-century view in Europe was that Bentham's view had to be promoted, de Sade's (which it found painful) suppressed so intensely that it - as de Sade predicted - became a pleasure in itself to indulge. The Victorian culture is often cited as the best example of this hypocrisy.
Paragon (band)
Paragon is a speed metal/power metal band from Hamburg, Germany.
Biography
Paragon was founded by guitarist Martin Christian (who in many of the band's album booklets is written as Martin Wöbcke when it comes to songwriting-credits). After releasing some demo tapes and a mini-CD, they were able to release an album in 1994, the debut World of Sin. Shortly after this, their record company Blue Merle went bankrupt, and Martin decided to put the band on hiatus.
About two years later, Martin found four new members (Andreas, Jan, Markus, & Claudius) and recorded the album The Final Command. In 1999, Chalice of Steel was released. In 2001, Paragon released Steelbound, engineered and produced by Piet Sielck of Iron Savior. Piet has worked with the band on every album since then.
After the recording of Forgotten Prophecies in early 2007, the band's longtime bass player Jan Bünning quit the band because of "musical differences." Shortly after the band had found a replacement in Dirk Seifert.
Paragon (comics)
Paragon is the codename used by three unrelated fictional characters from Marvel Comics. The first was genetically engineered by the Enclave. The second was created as an original character for the video game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. The third is a superhero and a member of Nebraska's Initiative team.
Paragon (Kismet)
Paragon (Maya)
Paragon (Maya) is a fictional character from Electronic Arts who first appeared in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.
Fictional character biography
After a century-long search, a young Amazonian warrior, Maya, was chosen from an isolated, primitive, and forgotten society deep within the South American jungle. Matching a specifically required DNA structure, Maya was the perfect candidate for the ultimate weapon. Maya possessed a toxin free physical make-up, Amazonian warrior skills, and the instinctual savagery found at the core of all humanity.
Having acquired the perfect specimen, Niles Van Roekel ordered her to be put into a prolonged stasis. It would take years to successfully master the fusion of alien tech with humans before Roekel’s team would finally be ready to work on Maya.
Paragon (automobile)
The Paragon was an automobile built in Detroit, Michigan by the Detroit Automobile Manufacturing Company from 1905-07. The Paragon was a small two-seater weighing only 650 pounds. It was equipped with a 0.7 liter, two-cylinder 5 hp engine.
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