difference?

[druiaghtagh]

Whats the difference between sentient and self aware please

[Surreylass]

Sentient is all about the ability to feel or sense but does not mean that you are aware.

Self awareness is about sensing that one exists. It also means that one exists as an individual, seperate from other people

[Town Crier]

Sorry, Surreylass, but Chambers dictionary disagrees with you in that one of the definitions for sentient is aware:

sentient
adj conscious; capable of sensation; aware; responsive to stimulus.
n that which is sentient; a sentient being or mind.

[Surreylass]

However....there is a difference..

Sentient means will not really have a continuum of awareness, not really aware of what it seems to "think" or "know," No experience of it's own reality or being.

[Surreylass]

So to confirm ('cos i am not wrong) :-)

Sentinent / Sentience is the possession of sensory organs, the ability to feel or perceive, but not necessarily including the faculty of self-awareness. The possession of apperception is not a necessity.


(Note: Apperception meaning conscious perception with full awareness (self awareness)

[Town Crier]

Ok surreylass, let's continue this to the next level - what sentient 'beings' do you consider not to have awareness that they exist?

[Surreylass]

Sorry Druiagtagh we are hijacking this thread....

Lets both agree that a being is declared to be sentient if he can physically or emotionally suffer. It is characterized by the possession of a developed nervous system and brain.

So for example I understand your point that for example when an animal grooms itself, it is aware of itself been groomed so this is a sentinent being who is aware. However when an animal looks into a mirror why is it always thinking it is another animal. It is not aware of its own reflection.

But in terms of the actual and literal difference i am still right ;-)

[Town Crier]

Your argument that because an animal looks into a mirror and sees another animal it is not self aware is fallacious - SOME animals may do this but as not all animals of the same kind do do this, it cannot be argued that this proves those animals who do are not aware they exist. I have six cats, including two born in my home, and not one has ever looked into a mirror and seen another animal; all six ignore their own reflection.

You are very confident you are right, Surreylass, but I would ask you to provide both druiaghtagh and myself with proof that there is an actual difference between sentience and self-awareness. In other words, is there any sentient being who is not also aware that they exist?

NB I accept your definition of sentient in your last post but just wonder if you can prove that something with a 'developed nervous system and brain' can also be unaware that they exist.

[Surreylass]

I think i know why you have a bee in your bonnet now Town Crier. As someone with 6 cats you are obviously an animal lover and so are adament that animals (as opposed to man) has self awareness.

I am not disputing this but in the correct definition of the two words there is a difference. Whilst it probably still comes down to personal opinion, obviously, in layman's terms the difference is

Sentience is the ability to sense. It is separate from, and not dependent on, aspects of consciousness (self-awareness)

[druiaghtagh]

Thanks both for interesting answers, i did not however mean to cause disagreements :-)