Introduction to sentience
The problem of consciousness
How does consciousness emerge? We don’t yet know what causes it to arise. We do have reasons to conclude certain animals are sentient, while others are not.
Consciousness and self-consciousness
Consciousness is being aware. Self-consciousness is being aware of oneself. Being conscious, rather than self-conscious, is the key concept in ethics.
What is sentience
Sentience is the capacity to be affected positively or negatively. It is the capacity to have experiences. It is not the mere capacity to perceive stimuli or react to some action, as in the case of a machine that performs certain functions…
Animal consciousness and cognition
Animal sentience studies look at nonhuman animals’ ability to have positive and negative experiences. At the most basic level, positive and negative experiences are pain and pleasure…
