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SUMMARY:A Natural History of Sentience - Dr Liz Paul\, Senior Research Fel
 low\, University of Bristol
DTSTART:20161116T160000Z
DTEND:20161116T170000Z
UID:TALK66811@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fiona Roby
DESCRIPTION:Sentient creatures are ones that have a capacity for feeling\;
  they have the potential to suffer and it is valid to be concerned about t
 heir well-being. But the problem with sentience is that it is difficult an
 d problematic to make assumptions about. If we assume that a particular sp
 ecies is sentient\, we can be accused of being unparsimonious in our expla
 nations of its behaviour and anthropomorphic in our inferences. If we assu
 me that it isn’t\, we may find ourselves denying the moral status of an 
 ethically relevant being. In this talk I argue that one pragmatic assumpti
 on can and should be made about sentience – that it evolved. Taking this
  simple step allows us to think about sentience as a biological phenomenon
  that is present in humans and is likely to have antecedents in other anim
 al species. Even if a completely human-like sentience is not a part of the
  biological make up of many animals\, facets of sentience may be present\,
  and evidence for these can be sought.\nIn recent years\, the study of hum
 an consciousness has grown exponentially. Experimental studies of the neur
 al and functional correlates of people’s subjective experiences have all
 owed researchers for the first time to start to develop an understanding o
 f the neural architecture involved in some aspects of conscious processing
 \, and of the functions these experiences may have in determining our beha
 vioural choices. I propose a “natural history of sentience”\, arguing 
 that certain human decision processes work\, and work better\, thanks to b
 eing done consciously rather than non-consciously. I go on to consider whe
 ther and in what forms such processes can be observed in non-human animals
 \, and review how empirically-based conclusions about animal sentience may
  tally with socially constructed beliefs about sentience in scientists and
  lay observers alike.\n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 2\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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