It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that it is wrong to cause pain to something? This question has less to do with "consciousness" and more to do with "sentience" -- the ability to perceive feelings and sensations. Philosopher Jonathan Birch has embarked on a careful study of the meaning of sentience and how it can be identified in different kinds of organisms, as he discusses in his new open-access book&nbsp;<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-edge-of-sentience-9780192870421?cc=us&lang=en&" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Edge of Sentience</a>. This is an example of a question at the boundary of philosophy and biology with potentially important implications for real-world policies.Support Mindscape on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Patreon</a>.Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/14/292-jonathan-birch-on-animal-sentience/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/10/14/292-jonathan-birch-on-animal-sentience/</a>Jonathan Birch received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Philosophy Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is one of the authors of the&nbsp;<a href="https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/nydeclaration/declaration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness</a>, and has advised the British government on matters of animal cruelty and sentience.<ul><li><a href="https://personal.lse.ac.uk/birchj1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li><li><a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpnss/people/jonathan-birch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LSE web page</a></li><li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uUFuYvYAAAAJ&hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google scholar publications</a></li><li><a href="https://philpeople.org/profiles/jonathan-birch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PhilPeople profile</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Birch_(philosopher)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li></ul>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

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292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

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