Animal Sentience
Animal Sentience
‘Sentience’ sometimes refers to the capacity for any type of subjective experience, and sometimes to the capacity to have subjective experiences with a positive or negative valence, such as pain or pleasure. We review recent controversies regarding sentience in fish and invertebrates and consider the deep methodological challenge posed by these cases. We then present two ways of responding to the challenge. In a policy-making context, precautionary thinking can help us treat animals appropriately despite continuing uncertainty about their sentience. In a scientific context, we can draw inspiration from the science of human consciousness to disentangle conscious and unconscious perception (especially vision) in animals. Developing better ways to disentangle conscious and unconscious affect is a key priority for future research.
Browning, Heather
8d13aa04-7648-4403-b29c-11f7674f6618
Birch, Jonathan
1710e22f-873a-4d7e-bbb3-43ecde11f8ae
May 2022
Browning, Heather
8d13aa04-7648-4403-b29c-11f7674f6618
Birch, Jonathan
1710e22f-873a-4d7e-bbb3-43ecde11f8ae
Browning, Heather and Birch, Jonathan
(2022)
Animal Sentience.
Philosophy Compass, 17 (5), [e12822].
(doi:10.1111/phc3.12822).
Abstract
‘Sentience’ sometimes refers to the capacity for any type of subjective experience, and sometimes to the capacity to have subjective experiences with a positive or negative valence, such as pain or pleasure. We review recent controversies regarding sentience in fish and invertebrates and consider the deep methodological challenge posed by these cases. We then present two ways of responding to the challenge. In a policy-making context, precautionary thinking can help us treat animals appropriately despite continuing uncertainty about their sentience. In a scientific context, we can draw inspiration from the science of human consciousness to disentangle conscious and unconscious perception (especially vision) in animals. Developing better ways to disentangle conscious and unconscious affect is a key priority for future research.
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Philosophy Compass - 2022 - Browning - Animal sentience
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Accepted/In Press date: 14 February 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 May 2022
Published date: May 2022
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Local EPrints ID: 475389
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/475389
ISSN: 1747-9991
PURE UUID: d42a5ad6-c2ed-45cc-8cf2-98e62dff9f9b
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Date deposited: 16 Mar 2023 18:03
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:15
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Author:
Heather Browning
Author:
Jonathan Birch
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