You may have guessed that sensitivity has something to do with the senses. The initial spelling sent – or meaning – is often a gift for such a meaning. A sentient being is someone who perceives sensations of any kind and responds to them: see, hear, touch, taste or smell. Sentient finally comes from the Latin verb to feel, which means “to feel” or “to perceive” and is related to the noun sensus, which means “meaning”. Some related English words are feeling and sentimental, which have to do with emotions, sensual, which refers to more physical sensations, and the trio of consent, consent and dissent, which includes its own expressions of agreement (or disagreement in case of dissent) in thought and feeling with another. The concept of sentient beings is contained in the Treaty of Lisbon. The law acts on words and their meaning, so it is appropriate to have a clear understanding of what sensitivity means. Overall, it means the ability to “feel and experience.” There are several critical understandings that are the logical legal consequence of this widely accepted and fundamental definition: sensitivity in Buddhism is the state of having senses. In Buddhism, there are six senses, the sixth being the subjective experience of the mind.
Sensibility is simply consciousness before the emergence of Skandha. Thus, an animal is qualified to be sensitive. According to Buddhism, living things are possible from pure consciousness. In Mahayana Buddhism, which includes Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, the concept is related to the bodhisattva, an enlightened being dedicated to the liberation of others. The first vow of a bodhisattva is: “Living things are innumerable; I swear to release them. When the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in 2009, it introduced the notion of sentient animals by recognising that animals are sentient creatures. 7. Translating positive animal welfare into law to ensure that everyone benefits from it is not the result of the explicit repetition of centuries-old implicit recognition. However, a legal definition that further develops due diligence leads to significant changes in practice.
Legally, a sentient being is a being who has the ability or ability to think, reason, feel pain and have emotions. Looking at the sensitivity of animals, it may be surprising to learn that Pisces are also considered sentient beings. However, this is less surprising given the amazing tricks and skills that fish can learn through positive reinforcement training techniques. This learning process suggests that fish have an important memory. Sentience also points to the many studies showing that fish feel pain and look for ways to relieve it. As plant-based alternatives to all the products they provide us become more accessible, the practice of locking up these animals becomes less and less justifiable. These animals deserve a life worth living, a life where they can build and maintain relationships, play, learn and be free. All sentient beings do it. From a more scientific point of view, sentient beings could be considered as a being capable of feeling physical and psychological suffering. In 1637, the French philosopher and mathematician Renã© Descartes declared that nonhuman animals were automatons. Although they responded to stimuli, he said, they felt neither pain nor pleasure.
From his point of view, they were no different from biological machines. What began Descartes` statement was an era of intellectual and moral indifference, if not hostility, to animal welfare that would shape legal thinking for centuries. Yet in the current rejection of his position, countries around the world anchor what society considers largely self-evident: that animals are sentient beings who not only feel pain and pleasure, but can also perceive the world around them. While this phenomenon has generally been welcomed by animal rights activists, the existence of animal welfare laws already seems to implicitly, if not explicitly, acknowledge that animals can and do suffer, that they have biological needs, and that these interests should be protected by law. Therefore, the question of how this growing recognition of animal susceptibility will improve their protection remains. Creatures considered sensitive generally include humans and nonhuman animals, including crabs, groupers, sea otters, dogs, cats, elephants, whales, dolphins, etc. As mentioned earlier in this article, non-animal entities such as rivers, mountains, landscapes, and plants are also considered sensitive, although they are less common in Western perspectives. In general, a sentient being in law is one with the capacity for sensation and the power to perceive, reason and think.1 The sensation quotient, a term coined by Robert Freitas and published in a science fiction journal in 1984, was originally intended as a tool for looking at the intelligence of beings beyond Earth. In science fiction stories and popular culture, robots and artificial intelligence machines are sometimes portrayed as free-thinking and sentient beings.
Only members of the animal kingdom can be sentient and not all animal species possess the qualities that their members would consider sentient beings. Article 13 of Title II of the Treaty of Lisbon states that, as animals are sentient beings, Member States must pay attention to animal welfare when developing policies, statutes and regulations and respect all laws, regulations or administrative provisions relating to religious rites, cultural traditions and heritage. While there are disagreements between legal systems, religions, and individual scholars about sensitivity and what it means to be sensitive, some norms are generally accepted. The Sentience Institute has put forward the idea that sensitivity is simply the ability to have positive and negative experiences. This definition is evident in many animal sentience laws that address the ability of animals to feel pain as a means of demonstrating sensitivity. While the vast majority of animals can be recognized as sentient beings, there are a small number of animals that, as far as scientists can currently tell, do not have the ability to sense sensory phenomena, whether positive or negative. An example of such a species is the oyster. Although oysters have a heart and organs, they lack a central nervous system, making them unlikely to feel pain. The apparent misunderstanding/confusion about sensitivity, positive animal welfare laws, legal logic, and long-term implications that affect animals and humans and our common planet for decades, if not generations, underscore why there is a desperate need for legal liability covering both halves of the sentient animal`s life experience.
According to a broad definition of sensitivity, almost any animal, human or non-human, would be considered a sentient being. Some examples of different species that are sentient beings can be found below. The impact is significant because dogs were previously considered “object” or “property,” whereas how they are treated can have legal consequences for the dog owner or individuals in general if the law declares dogs sensitive. Definitions are important because they decide which phenomena are included or excluded in the activity in question – whether it is a law or a scientific study. How sensitivity is defined is generally a concern for those advocating for increased protection of nonhuman animals.