Pains are standardly defined to be phenomenally conscious mental states. According to this definition, pains are not located in body parts such as knees and shoulders, and cannot exist unfelt. 

Our research on pain centers on empirically investigating the folk concept of pain, i.e., examining how laypeople conceive of and think about pain. These empirical studies show that many laypeople entertain a concept of pain that is in conflict with the standard definition of pain. Instead, the folk, by and large, consider pains to be bodily states. Capturing and explaining differences between the standard definition of pain and the folk concept of pain seem vital to better understand the phenomenon of pain as well as improving pain communication between medical experts and patients.