Animal Sentience

Humans are unique among living beings in having language, culture – and consciousness, all in the proper narrow sense of the words. Extending the sense of “language” (to cover animal signaling), “culture” (to cover animal tool use) and “consciousness” (to cover animal mentality) hinders a scientific understanding of animal minds, so far as animal species have minds. The book deals with the distinction between consciousness and sentience. The focus is on paradigmatic arguments in cognitive science concerning their distinction or continuity. Philosophy of Cognitive Science tries to define such paradigmatic arguments and to evaluate their cogency in their respective uses.