Peer reviewed scientific studies on animal sentience.

[wfatheist]

Hey guys can anyone here link me some peer reviewed scientific studies on animal sentience? I'm arguing with a friend about this right now and he is trying to discredit anything I say without the backing of peer reviewed.

[EquALLity]

I don't have one, but:

Only and all sentient beings have interests, and many animals clearly have interests, because they do things for enjoyment.

Dogs, animals who are apparently not as smart as pigs, like to play fetch etc., for example. They have an interest in playing games.

They also obviously have an interest in avoiding pain.

[brimstoneSalad]

Sentience is a more complex quality, made up of several simpler ones. So, you won't find a study on sentience, but you will on its components.

E.g. you'd want to find one showing that animals have true intelligence (as demonstrated by associative learning), and that animals have sense experience (as demonstrated by sight, sound, touch, pain, etc.).

Once you've shown those to be true, the logical conclusion is that they are sentient (experience sense, and understand that sense in the context of interests as proven by learning from it and responding intelligently to it and not just by reflex). It's kind of a 2+2 = 4 thing.

If he doesn't understand that, I'm not sure what to say other than showing him the definition of sentience and trying to help him understand logic.

But here's something to ask: What does he think "sentience" means?