Sentience definition philosophy4/19/2023 If you pet a rock, there is no one there to feel anything. If you pet a chicken she will feel pleasure. ![]() A chicken is a subject of experience, whereas a rock is not. An object is a thing that does not experience its world. A subject is a someone, one who experiences their world, as an animal does. The word subjective, which refers to inner, or personal, experiences, refers to this subject. When a being has an experience, there exists in that being what we can call a subject, that is, a “someone” who is having the experience, an “I” who is conscious. Though a conscious being may not be sentient if, through some damage, she has become unable to receive any sensation of her body or of the external world and can only have experiences of her own thoughts. All sentient beings are conscious beings. The difference in meaning between sentience and consciousness is slight. Sentience refers to the ability to have positive and negative experiences caused by external affectations to our body or to sensations within our body. The word “sentience” is sometimes used instead of consciousness. We can have these experiences insofar as we are conscious indeed, the fact itself of having experiences is, as noted above, to be conscious. To suffer is to have a negative experience.Īll emotions and feelings that we have are experiences, and we can also have experiences that are caused only by our thoughts. It is negative when it involves some form of suffering. An experience is positive when the subject enjoys it, is satisfied with it, or is pleased by it. It can be the experience of a feeling or of a thought of any type. Conscious beings can experience something external in the environment or something internal to the body. 1 We can only experience something if we are conscious, and if we are conscious it means we can have experiences. We believe that understanding sentience will have enormous benefits as a tool for finding ways to solve the problem of suffering.To be conscious is to be able to have some kind of subjective experience or awareness of something. ![]() It is a complex field, with a lot to understand and explore. Research on sentience is related to multiple areas of knowledge, from neuroscience and philosophy to psychology, computer science and genetics. We explore this particular area trying to be effective in reducing involuntary and useless suffering. We are aligned with ideas taken from the Effective Altruism (EA) movement and the concept of Suffering-Focused Ethics (SFE). Sentience implies the capacity for positive or negative experiences, such as pleasure and pain, suffering and enjoyment. Sentience is a concept very close to the idea of consciousness, but sentience is, in our opinion, focused on what is more morally relevant. The objective of Sentience Research is to develop, disseminate and promote research on sentience aimed at a better world, and particularly, reducing involuntary and useless suffering. “The question is not Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?” - Jeremy Bentham
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