Questão
de Ética PT

Lesson plan · Volume VI

To Whom Do We Owe Moral Consideration?

The debate on the sentience criterion

See the volume

Objectives

  • The main criticisms of the sentience criterion and the replies to them
  • Why the criterion is not anthropocentric and does not exclude invertebrates
  • Why being alive, on its own, is not enough to be harmed
  • What would follow if plants were sentient

It helps if the class has already seen: Volume II.

A 50-minute lesson

  1. 5 min
    Opening. Ask the question and let the class answer without correcting them: What criterion do you actually use to decide whom to care about?
  2. 15 min
    Reading. What is relevant for knowing to whom we owe consideration? (9 min read) and Is the criterion of sentience anthropocentric at bottom? (1 min read). For younger classes, read the “For kids” layer: To choose who will operate in a hospital, we look at surgical skill, not hair color. To choose who deserves care, we look at whether that someone can feel, not at their species.
  3. 15 min
    Discussion.
    • What criterion do you actually use to decide whom to care about? (What is relevant for knowing to whom we owe consideration?)
    • If we discovered a sentient being that looked nothing like us, should it count? (Is the criterion of sentience anthropocentric at bottom?)
    • Which beings do you include in your consideration just because they're “animals,” without asking whether they feel? (Does the criterion of sentience discriminate against those who do not belong to the animal kingdom?)
    • What other harms, besides pain, can you imagine for an animal? (According to the criterion of sentience, is suffering the only problem?)
  4. 10 min
    Activity. Project the debate simulator. In groups, the class chooses the best reply to each objection and explains why the others are weak.
  5. 5 min
    Wrap-up. Each person writes one sentence about what changed in their thinking. Compare it with the volume summary: The debate on the sentience criterion: some twenty criticisms (anthropocentrism, discrimination between kingdoms, harms without suffering, insects, subjectivity, degrees of sentience, biocentrism, the value of life, biological interests, plants) and the replies its defenders give.

Exercise sheet

  1. The “trivial” premise of the argument from relevance is that...

    1. a criterion must be based on a distinction relevant to the question
    2. all criteria are equal
    3. only species matters

  2. What comes in the volume's following chapters?

    1. The criticisms of the sentience criterion and the replies
    2. Vegan recipes
    3. The history of philosophy

  3. What's the difference between using reason and using sentience as a criterion?

    1. Reason doesn't determine who can be harmed; sentience does
    2. None
    3. Sentience is rarer

  4. Defenders of the sentience criterion say we should consider sentient beings because...

    1. they resemble humans
    2. they can be harmed and benefited
    3. they're beautiful

  5. What examples of probably non-sentient animals does the chapter give?

    1. Sponges and jellyfish
    2. Octopuses and crabs
    3. Bees and flies

  6. Would a non-organic sentient being be included by the criterion?

    1. Yes
    2. No
    3. Only if it were an animal

  7. Thinking that the sentience criterion is concerned only with suffering is...

    1. correct
    2. one of the most common misunderstandings about it
    3. its definition

  8. Death harms a sentient being mainly through...

    1. the presence of suffering
    2. the absence of what would be positive for them
    3. the loss of the body

  9. Cases of harm without any change in experience are an objection to...

    1. the sentience criterion
    2. hedonism as a theory of well-being
    3. ethics in general

  10. What does a preference depend on in order to exist?

    1. Sentience
    2. Language
    3. Species

Answer key

  1. a) The example is the selection of a medical team.
  2. a) The volume examines the criticisms of the criterion.
  3. a) That's the chapter's first reply.
  4. b) It isn't a matter of resemblance to humans.
  5. a) They have no nervous system, or not even a minimally organized one.
  6. a) The criterion is sentience, not kingdom or substrate.
  7. b) Avoiding suffering is one part, not the whole.
  8. b) Even if painless, it prevents positive experiences.
  9. b) The criterion says who can be harmed, not what well-being consists in.
  10. a) Only those who feel can prefer.

The lesson plan and exercises are a study layer written for this site. The texts read are by Luciano Carlos Cunha.