Disclaiming anti-representationalism about pain

According to the so-called representational theories of pain, pains are mental states that represent some bodily disturbance. A common argument presented against such theories is that, because many cases of pain are idiopathic (i.e., they are unaccompanied by any seeming disturbance in one’s body), they don’t represent anything, and hence representationalism about pain cannot be true. Our goal in this paper is to rebuke this argument by showing that evidence from the neurosciences supports the case for representationalism better than they support the case against it.