The In(significance) of Sentience

Publication Date

1-8-2026

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Dharma Studies

Volume

9

Issue

1

DOI

10.1007/s42240-025-00238-8

Abstract

This paper challenges the sentientist view, as advanced by the 2024 New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, that consciousness is the primary ground for moral standing. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from animal cognition, plant intelligence, artificial intelligence (AI), and Jain ethics, I argue that intelligence, defined as problem-solving and goal-directed behavior, provides a broader and more measurable basis for moral standing across biological and artificial entities. While the Declaration emphasizes sentience for moral consideration, I propose that entities like plants and AI, which may lack consciousness but exhibit goal-directed intelligence, also warrant moral inclusion. Plants demonstrate intelligence through survival-oriented behaviors (e.g., root tropism, chemical defenses), and AI shows comparable capacities via benchmarks like ARC-AGI-2. Engaging with Indian philosophical perspectives from the 2024 AAR meeting, including Jainism’s graded moral framework based on senses, I advocate an approach where intelligence grounds moral standing, and capacities like sentience or rationality grade moral status. This framework offers a unified ethical model for diverse entities, from microbes to machines.

Keywords

AI consciousness, Animal consciousness, Intelligence, Jainism, Moral grading, Moral ground, Moral standing, New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, Plant consciousness

Department

Philosophy

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