ThirstyFish

This is a followup to a prior post about animals being automatons.

To date, philosophers, scientists and thinkers have not composed universally accepted definitions of Consciousness, Sentience and Reasoning. In a generalized sense; Reasoning is the human mental ability to make inferences about the universe. It is associated with human activities such as language, science, art, mathematics and philosophy. Sentience is a level of awareness where the subject can experience feeling, perception or consciousness. Consciousness is an evolved state of awareness where the subject is self-aware. It is a necessary condition for thought and reasoning.

An Automaton is simply a self operating machine, a robot, a non-sentient device. Animals are sentient beings at the least. A recent study showed that "adult female chickens possess at least one of the essential attributes of empathy; the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another". Empathy implies consciousness. It has also been suggested that animals can solve problems using abstract reasoning and even perform simple arithmetic...

"We are not all that much different than animals" is a recurring theme in a number of posts. In spite of all of our great "human" attributes; sentience, consciousness, reasoning and empathy, most of us are still impelled only by our primary drives.

Sapience, or lack thereof, transcends species.