Can a very primitive animal feel pain if it has no memory?

Question

I have been debating this with my brother for as long as i can remember. Take an animal that is very non-complex and can not form memories i.e. perhaps a sponge and you hurt it. Can it feel pain even if it can't form any memories. I am not talking about dogs and cats of course they can feel pain, this is more of a philosophical question than anything.

Answer 1

How would one know for certain whether or not another organism can or can not form memory?

Pain is an immediate sensation brought about by the interaction of stimuli upon nerves and memory is not necessary so as to sense such.

Simply because an organism in unable to communicate with another organism as to the sensation it is feeling does not the negate the fact that it may indeed feel such a sensation.

Perhaps it is wiser to assume that all can feel such rather than to suppose that they can not so that each may work with greater intensity to do no harm to any other living being.

Be well.

Answer 2

At the initial moment of injury/harm, whatever pain is experienced does not involve memory. But, I suspect a correct interpretation of your question would be closer to something like this: "Can an animal continue to experience pain if that animal cannot form memories?" If that's accurate, I would say yes, because the concept of pain (in this context) is essentially a physical one, not a mental one. The body doesn't have to "remember" that it was injured or that it experienced pain.

Answer 3

i didnt know memory and pain have any connection.

If you are referring the "pain" to emotional "pain", its pretty obvious.

Answer 4

Even your body has cells that remember without reporting to the brain. Eukariotic cells are already up on the ladder and a sponge cell is more complex than our best computers.