My brother thinks that if one is not sentient they cannot feel physical pain.
In: Biology
Yes, but animals are sentient – they have sensory organs that convey various sensory inputs; “pain” is just a sensory input above a certain threshold for that particular input organ.
The short answer is no one knows. It’s near impossible to know what another being is feeling, especially if it can’t communicate that feeling in a familiar way to us.
The literal definition of sentience is ‘able to perceive or feel things.’ I think your brother is right on this one—you need to be able to feel things to feel physical pain.
Edit: spelling
In a biological sense, yes.
In a philosophical sense, no. Philosophers refer to sentience as being self aware and there are many creatures that are not self aware that can still feel pain. Yet because they are not self aware they do not understand it. Chickens are a good example. They feel pain but are not self aware so they don’t understand it. All they do know is “pain=bad” so when they encounter pain they run from it.
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