The Problem of Pain in Byung-Chul Han's Philosophy: The Extinction of Homo Doloris

Pain is a multidimensional notion. It has different meanings from physiological, existential, and spiritual perspectives. Pain is both the source and the result of a specific warning, a personal perception, anxiety or deep thought, limitation, fear in the face of death and finally the existential abyss. In this respect, they are steps taken towards homo doloris (suffering human being). In addition, today, with the digital age, ontological and epistemological debates continue in new forms around problems such as feeling, communicating, and overcoming pain. These discussions show the direction, image, and way of transferring the subject's relationship with pain to life. Byung-Chul Han claims that these distinctions have turned into a deep rupture, and that the relationship between the subject and pain has changed as the negativity of pain has become widespread. The aim of this study is to discuss both pain and its related concepts death, and life, based on Han, who philosophically analyses the postmodern transformation of pain in our age. However, it is open to discussion why a painfree life is desirable.