Sentient Being
Sentient
Having a faculty, or faculties, of sensation and perception. Specif. (Physiol.), especially sensitive; as, the sentient extremities of nerves, which terminate in the various organs or tissues. One who has the faculty of perception; a sentient being.
Sentient Quotations
"The main point for me is moral; animals are sentient beings. I know for some this is a hard argument to accept, but we''re not built to eat a lot of meat."Grace Slick
"Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions.."Jacques Barzun
"There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.."Frances Wright
"The crucial task of old age is balance: keeping just well enough, just brave enough, just gay and interested and starkly honest enough to remain a sentient human being.."Florida Scott-Maxwell
Sentience
is the ability to feel or perceive. The term is used in science and philosophy, and in the study of artificial intelligence. Sentience is used in the study of consciousness to describe the ability to have sensations or experiences, known to Western philosophers as "qualia". In eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. In many science fiction works sentience is often used as a synonym for sapience meaning "human-level or higher intelligence".
Philosophy and sentience
In the philosophy of consciousness, "sentience" can refer to the ability of any entity to have subjective perceptual experiences, or "qualia".[1] This is distinct from other aspects of the mind and consciousness, such as creativity, intelligence, sapience, self-awareness, and intentionality (the ability to have thoughts that mean something or are "about" something). Sentience is a minimalistic way of defining "consciousness", which is otherwise commonly used to collectively describe sentience plus other characteristics of the mind.
Some philosophers, notably Colin McGinn, believe that sentience will never be understood, a position known as "New Mysterianism". They do not deny that most other aspects of consciousness are subject to scientific investigation but they argue that subjective experiences will never be explained; i.e., sentience is the only aspect of consciousness that can''t be explained. Other philosophers (such as Daniel Dennett) disagree, arguing that all aspects of consciousness will eventually yield to scientific investigation.
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