 And now, this world shall know pain, almighty push. To learn about pain's philosophy, first we must look at pain's backstory to understand why his reasoning is the way it is and what influenced his mind and his actions. Pain was not always known as pain but as Nagato. Nagato was born in the village hidden in the rain during the Second Shinobi War. As a child, Madara Uchiha implanted the Rinnegan into Nagato's eyes. The Rinnegan's abilities only emerged out of self-defense after his parents were murdered in front of his eyes by two Konoha Shinobi. The timid Nagato was forced to leave his home and search for food and shelter. Nagato ended up making friends and grew up alongside them as Yahiko and Konon became his best friends and his family. The trio were eager to learn Ninjutsu but also to find food. It was later on they came across the three signen of the leaf where Jirai would engage them. After Jirai discovered Nagato's powerful eyes, he decided to train the three Ninjutsu, seeing the potential of Nagato as the Sage of Six Paths or the possible reincarnation. The three later went on to form the Akatsuki with a goal to bring peace and end war. They amassed many members and followers. As the rain was a land of suffering, every single ninja war used the rain's location which was in the middle of the land of fire as a battleground. Countless people and land were constantly being ravaged. The Akatsuki's goal generated hope for these individuals. But this success would not last very long as they were now in the Third Shinobi War. Hanzo of the Salamander was no longer interested in peace but now preserving his power and so alongside Donzo's Anbu, he ambushed the three friends threatening to kill Konon if Nagato did not kill Yahiko. Yahiko ended up taking his own life at the hands of Nagato's Kunai, encouraging the Rinnigan user to change the world as he wanted to. This enraged Nagato as he retrieved Konon from their clutches but he was immobilized in the process. Through the death of his best friend and the realization of the world, Nagato's philosophy was born and thus the six paths of pain were also born using Yahiko's body and the bodies of Jiraiya's former enemies. Pain believed that achieving peace through friendship and uniting individuals was a naive and brash way of looking at achieving peace, imprudent even. Pain believed the world was in a never ending cycle of hatred and death and that the only way to achieve true peace was through the experience of war, essentially by knowing pain. By virtue of this he set out a new plan, pain with the help of the new members of the Akatsuki which would be comprised of the strongest rogue Shinobi from the hidden villages. He would assemble them and send them off to different villages in order to pursue every single Jinturiki. He was after the tailed beasts. His plan was to capture every single tailed beast and release them upon every village and once every village has felt destruction and loss, once every person has felt pain, they would cease to fight each other thus creating peace. Pain's philosophy is possible through understanding. Once everyone has felt the same pain, they would not want to experience it again. They would all understand what pain feels like, which breeds peace. Pain was utilitarianism, a theory created by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham that focuses on results rather than rules. Basically pain's methods were for the greater good. The lives that were lost was for the greater good because more people would end up surviving as a result of pain ending all wars. Using John Stuart Mills' modified utilitarian calculus, pain wouldn't have minimized the pain, but he would have maximized pleasure of the highest quality, that being survival, achieving the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The reason pain made it so far was because he played a taboo role. He assumed a position that no one should ever assume. Pain decided to play God. When pain covertly killed Hanzo, the villagers of the rain saw pain as a godly figure, or as commonly named the savior of the world. The citizens of the rain needed someone to lift their spirits, and pain was that person and he eventually began to see himself as such, but only he had the ability to perform and take on such a task. With the possession of the Rhinogon, pain could be at multiple places at once with the six paths. Pain could revive the dead with the samsara of heavenly life technique. He truly did play God. Even Jiraiya sensei saw him as the reincarnation of the sage of six paths. Alongside Jutsu names such as Planetary Devastation and Almighty Push, these all factored into the facade that pain played. In consummation, I leave you with a question. Was pain truly a villain? And was his philosophy wrong? To finally summarize pain's philosophy is with this. You must know and feel pain in order to know peace. Pain describes the cycle of hatred as vengeance disguised as justice. Nagato as pain's actions teaches us that you must not let our pain or the lust for vengeance fuel our motivation because war only creates more war.