Sentience

Sentience is being capable of feeling, consciousness or having some form of mind.Runes D.D. (ed) 1942. "Consciousness at a rudimentary sensory level". New York: Philosophical Library, p290. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience). 

 Intelligence and sentience 
In simple English, to be sentient means displaying and/or having the ability to:
Feel
Perceive
Desire
possibly Will, though this goes beyond some definitions.

 Philosophy and sentience 
In the philosophy of consciousness, sentience can refer to the ability of any thing to have subjective perceptual experiences, or as some philosophers refer to them, "qualia".Online papers on qualia , by various authors, compiled by David Chalmers

 Animal rights and sentience 
Thinking about sentience is important when studying animal rights. This is because feeling is needed in order to suffer. The basis of animal rights is that some animals have emotions, can feel pain and also feel happy and well.  

 Reference 

Category:Philosophy
Category:Animal rights
Category:Consciousness