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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Why Fish Pain Cannot And Should Not Be Ruled Out, Anil K. Seth
Why Fish Pain Cannot And Should Not Be Ruled Out, Anil K. Seth
Animal Sentience
Do fish consciously feel pain? Addressing this question, Key (2016) asks whether the neural mechanisms underlying conscious pain reports in humans can be identified in fish. This strategy fails in three ways. First, non-mammalian consciousness — if it exists — may depend on different mechanisms. Second, accumulating neurophysiological and behavioural evidence, evolutionary considerations, and emerging Bayesian brain theories suggest that if fish can feel at all, they can feel pain. Finally, the qualitative nature of pain and suffering obliges us, via the precautionary principle, to accommodate the possibility of its existence where doubt remains.
From Sentience To Science: Limits Of Anthropocentric Cognition, Charukeshi Chandrasekera
From Sentience To Science: Limits Of Anthropocentric Cognition, Charukeshi Chandrasekera
Animal Sentience
Donald Broom’s Sentience and Animal Welfare (2014) is an intellectually and morally engaging book written with radical new concepts in mind. It deals with many issues that are central to the animal welfare debate such as brain complexity, cognitive ability, when in life sentience begins, and how it all affects the way we endorse welfare. It addresses how our insatiable quest to define the uniqueness of our own species has led us to ignore logic and scientific evidence. It also brings greater clarity to these precarious positions and outlines pragmatic approaches to tackling this complex topic of sentience and welfare.
Animal Welfare And Animal Rights, M.E. Rolle
Animal Welfare And Animal Rights, M.E. Rolle
Animal Sentience
This overview of Broom’s book, Sentience and Animal Welfare (2014), considers the role the book could play in the animal rights debate. In a thoroughly researched and objectively presented text, Broom lays out information that could place doubt in the minds of decision-makers. By highlighting not just the ways animals resemble humans, but also the ways humans resemble animals, Broom shines a light on a solidly grey area in the animal rights debate.