WNWDICTIONARYplusMoreAboutSentience
WEBSTER’S
WEBSTER’S
pur[pose 7p%r$p!s8
-[posed, -[pos[ing
5ME purposen
< OFr porposer, var. of proposer: see PROPOSE6 to intend, resolve, or
plan
n.
5ME < OFr porpos6
1 something one intends to
get or do; intention; aim
2 resolution;
determination
3 the object for which
something exists or is done; end in view
—SYN INTEND, INTENTION
of set purpose
1 with a specific end in
view
2 not accidentally; by design
on purpose
by design; intentionally
to good purpose
with a good result or effect; advantageously
to little (or no) purpose with little (or no) result or effect;
pointlessly
to the purpose
relevant; pertinent
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
sen·tient 
ˈsɛnʃənt - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sen-shuhnt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
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1. |
having the power of perception by the senses; conscious. |
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2. |
characterized by sensation and consciousness. |
–noun
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3. |
a person or thing that is sentient. |
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4. |
Archaic. the
conscious mind. |
[Origin: 1595–1605; <
L sentient- (s. of sentiéns, prp. of sentīre to
feel), equiv. to senti- v. s. + -ent- -ent]
—Related forms
sen·tient·ly, adverb
|
Dictionary.com
Unabridged (v 1.1) |
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
|
sen·tient 1.
Having sense perception; conscious: "The
living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage" (T.E.
Lawrence). 2.
Experiencing sensation or feeling.
|
(Download Now or Buy the Book)
|
The
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition |
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sentient
1632, "capable of
feeling," from L. sentientem
(nom. sentiens)
"feeling," prp. of sentire
"to feel" (see sense). Meaning
"conscious" (of something) is from 1815.
|
Online
Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
|
sentient |
|
|
|
|
|
1. |
endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness;
"the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage"-
T.E.Lawrence [ant: insensate] |
|
2. |
consciously perceiving; "sentient of
the intolerable load"; "a boy so sentient of his
surroundings"- W.A.White |
|
WordNet®
3.0, © 2006 by |
American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sen·tient (s
n
sh
nt, -sh
-nt)
adj.
1.
Having sense perception; conscious.
2.
Experiencing sensation or feeling.
|
The
American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary |
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: sen·tient
Pronunciation: 'sen-ch(E-)&nt, 'sent-E-&nt
Function: adjective
: responsive
to or conscious of sense impressions —sen·tient·ly adverb
|
Merriam-Webster's
Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc. |
Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This
sentient
sentient was
Word of the Day on January 2, 2002.
|
Dictionary.com
Word of the Day |
Sentience
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source
Sentience refers to utilization of sensory organs or organelles, the
ability to feel or perceive subjectively, not necessarily including the faculty
of self-awareness.
The possession of sapience
is not a necessity. The word sentient is often confused with the word sapient, which
can connote knowledge,
consciousness,
or apperception.
The root of the confusion is that the word conscious has a number of
different usages in English.
The two words can be distinguished by looking at their Latin roots:
sentire, "to feel"; and sapere, "to know".
Sentience
is the ability to sense. It is separate from, and not dependent on, aspects of
consciousness.
Philosophy
and sentience
Many philosophers, notably Colin McGinn, believe
that sentience cannot ever be understood, no matter how much progress is made
by neuroscience in understanding the brain. Holders of this position are called
New
Mysterians. They do not deny that most other aspects of
consciousness are subject to scientific investigation, from creativity to
sapience, to self-awareness. New Mysterians believe that only sentience cannot
be comprehensively understood by science. There continues to be much debate
among philosophers, with many adamant that there is no really hard problem with
sentience whatsoever.
Non-human
animal rights and sentience
In the philosophy of animal rights,
sentience is commonly seen as the ability to experience suffering. The 18th century
philosopher Jeremy
Bentham raised the issue of non-human suffering and sadism
in An Introduction to the
Principles of Morals and Legislation:
As Peter Singer argues,
this is often dismissed by appeal to a distinction that condemns humans
suffering but allows non-human suffering. However, as many of the suggested
distinguishing features of humanity - extreme intelligence; highly complex
language; etc. are not present in marginal cases such as young or mentally
disabled humans, it appears that the only distinction is a prejudice based on
species alone, which non-human animal rights supporters call speciesism - that
is, differentiating humans from other animals purely on the grounds that they
are human.
On the
other hand, some have argued that modern science cannot determine exactly where
sentience begins, going from bacteria to animals. This would pose considerable
complications for a theory of unnecessary suffering. Others take no objection
with the conclusion that it's wrong to cause unnecessary suffering, but contend
that on this issue the moral concept of right/wrong shouldn't mirror human nature
but should instead be modelled from nature. Since animals routinely kill
each other and inflict (at times unnecessary) suffering on each other, then as
part of animalia it wouldn't be wrong for us to also. This is a view most of
the world's population follows, whether intentionally acknowledging it or not.
Therefore, the reason the rules of nature regarding killing aren't applicable
towards other humans is because we are then dealing with the human realm. Our
own psychology and the collective sociology make it unfavorable (i.e. less
safety, added stress, reduced efficiency) to partake in killing other humans.
Seen in this light, it would not be speciesism to kill
animals but spare humans, but instead an outgrowth of humans' (as a species)
naturalistic adaptation while observing all natural ethics regarding suffering.
Science
fiction
In science
fiction, an alien, robot or computer who is
described as "sentient" is assumed to have many human qualities, such
as will, desire, consciousness, ethics, personality, intelligence, insight, and
so on (although it may be conspicuously lacking one or two). Sentience is being
used in this context to describe an essential human
property that brings all these other qualities with it.
Some
science fiction plot lines explore ethical concerns, analogous to the concerns of
advocates of animal
rights. In an episode of Star Trek, Data,
a sentient robot, takes legal action to prove that he has the same rights as a
human being. The film Artificial Intelligence: A.I. considers a machine
in the form of a small boy which has been given the ability to feel human
emotions, including, tragically, the capacity to suffer.
In many
science fiction works sentience is often used as a synomym for sapience meaning
"human-level or higher intelligence". But others make a distinction,
for example in David
Brin's Uplift
stories the Tandu are
undoubtedly sapient (both technologically skilled and cunning) but only
marginally sentient, since they regard other races and sometimes as other Tandu
mainly as potential prey.
Eastern
religion
Eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism recognize nonhumans
as sentient beings. In Jainism and Hinduism, this is closely related to the
concept of ahimsa, nonviolence
toward other beings. In Jainism, all the matter is endowed with sentience;
there are six degrees of sentience, from one to six. Water, for example, is a
sentient being of first order, as it is considered to possess only one sense,
that of touch. Man is considered to be sentient being of the sixth order.
According to Buddhism, sentient beings made of pure consciousness are possible.
In Mahayana Buddhism,
which includes Zen and Tibetan
Buddhism, the concept is related to the Bodhisattva, an
enlightened being devoted to the liberation of others. The first vow
of a Bodhisattva states: "Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to free
them."
Western
religion
Western religion is increasingly becoming
aware of the concept of sentience. Andrew Linzey,
founder of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics in
References
- Jeremy Bentham - Introduction
to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
- Book about A Theory of
Sentience Readership: Philosophers, psychologists, and
neuroscientists interested in sensation and perception. Authors, Austen
Clark, Professor of Philosophy,
- D. Cole: Sense and
Sentience SENSE5 8/18/90; rev. 1-19-98. (original 1983) copyright David
Cole University of Minnesota, Duluth
- Sentient Suffering: A
website for an upcoming documentary about animal sentience
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