Tag: sentience

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Hedin

Date
August 8, 2025

Categories
Epistemology
Faith & Science
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, brain, C. S. Lewis, deductive reasoning, Denyse O'Leary, free will, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, human beings, immaterial soul, insight, Intellectus, intelligent design, J.P. Moreland, Kurt Gödel, Medieval Model, Michael Egnor, Ratio, rational soul, reasoned thought, Sensitive Soul, sentience, souls, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, Vegetable Soul}

C. S. Lewis and the Rational Soul

_{Eric Hedin
August 8, 2025

Epistemology, Faith & Science, Neuroscience & Mind

6}

Classical and medieval scholars would not be surprised at the mounting scientific evidence for the immaterial soul. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
June 13, 2025

Categories
Intelligent Design
Neuroscience & Mind
Physics
Tagged
, animal species, astrophysicists, awareness, Dogs, Edward Feser, eliminative materialism, Ethan Siegel, human mind, inner states, materialism, Michael Egnor, mind, physical reality, physics, sentience, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Nagel}

What (If Anything) Physics Can Say About Consciousness

_{Denyse O’Leary
June 13, 2025

Intelligent Design, Neuroscience & Mind, Physics

5}

What about objects? If we want to argue that they have consciousness too, we need to define the term differently from the experiential way we usually do. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
January 10, 2025

Categories
Bioethics
Life Sciences
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, animal rights, animals, cats, coral, crabs, cuttlefish, Dogs, fetus, Jonathan Birch, lobsters, London School of Economics, Marc Bekoff, neuroscience, octopuses, pain, Psychology Today, sentience, squid}

What Do Animals Feel? And What About Babies?

_{Denyse O’Leary
January 10, 2025

Bioethics, Life Sciences, Neuroscience & Mind

7}

With human babies, those who propose laws against cruelty suddenly enter a Cold Zone, at least compared to their feelings for crustaceans. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Hedin

Date
December 24, 2024

Categories
Bioethics
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, alcohol, artificial intelligence, COVID-19, firearms, Francis Collins, John West, machine language, morality, public health, Robert J. Marks II, safety, sentience, tobacco}

What If? The Threat of Sentient AGI

_{Eric Hedin
December 24, 2024

Bioethics, Neuroscience & Mind

6}

John West brings a word of caution to public health policies espoused by Francis Collins. Collins succinctly illustrates an example of unbalanced morality. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles

Date
November 2, 2024

Categories
Arts
Bioethics
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, algorithms, books, cathedrals, ChatGPT, creativity, human beings, intelligence, large language models, materialism, music, music theory, nature, Oxford University, sentience, soul, The Lord of the Rings, theists, Turing test, War and Peace}

Putting AI to the “Tolkien Test”: Could It Pass?

_{Peter Biles
November 2, 2024

Arts, Bioethics, Neuroscience & Mind

3}

Could ChatGPT ever hope to get close to the creative depth found in Tolkien’s Middle-earth? Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
June 30, 2024

Categories
Chemistry
Evolution
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, animals, consciousness, Daniel Dennett, feelings, human consciousness, insects, Jerry Coyne, Lars Chittka, natural selection, naturalism, panpsychism, Princeton University Press, protozoans, qualia, Queen Mary University, Scientific American, sentience, The Mind of a Bee, Tufts University}

Bees with Feelings? A Darwinist Winces

_{Denyse O’Leary
June 30, 2024

Chemistry, Evolution, Neuroscience & Mind

6}

Most naturalist philosophers of mind have held that human consciousness — maddeningly mysterious — is an illusion. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O’Leary

Date
May 19, 2024

Categories
Life Sciences
Neuroscience & Mind
Philosophy
Tagged
, amphibians, animal rights, bees, Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, cognition, consciousness, crabs, crustaceans, cuttlefish, Dan Falk, eliminative materialism, fish, fungal mind, insects, lobsters, memory, My Octopus Teacher, nature rights, Nautilus, New York University, octopuses, Phys.org, Quanta, reptiles, sentience, squid, Thomas Nagel}

What Does It Mean to Say “Lobsters Are Conscious”?

_{Denyse O’Leary
May 19, 2024

Life Sciences, Neuroscience & Mind, Philosophy

6}

Much will be learned from a more careful analysis of the behavior of life forms, which will likely turn up many more instances of unexpected sentience. Read More ›

Close-up of a bacterium under a microscope, with vivid purple and pink colors highlighting cellular details.

^{Type
post

Author
Daniel Witt

Date
April 11, 2024

Categories
Botany
Intelligent Design
Neuroscience & Mind
Tagged
, archaea, Arthur S. Reber, bacteria, cells, cellular basis of consciousness, cellular cognition, cognition, consciousness, evolution, Evolution “On Purpose”, František Baluška, fungal mind, fungi, intelligent design, mind, minds, Neo-Darwinism, Peter Corning, protozoans, sentience, unguided evolution, William B. Miller Jr.}

Was God a Bacterium?

_{Daniel Witt
April 11, 2024

Botany, Intelligent Design, Neuroscience & Mind

6}

We should acknowledge that this theory is, unlike some similar attempts, at least an actual solution: if true, it would explain how complex life evolved. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
March 9, 2024

Categories
Bioethics
Biology
Medicine
Reproductive Science
Tagged
, Alabama Supreme Court, death, doctors, egg, embryos, fetuses, human beings, human rights, ideology, in vitro fertilization, independence, IVF, Judeo-Christian tradition, newborns, personhood, petri dish, pregnancy, right to life, sentience, sperm, Steven Novella, womb, Yale University}

The Humanity and Personhood of an Embryo

_{Michael Egnor
March 9, 2024

Bioethics, Biology, Medicine, Reproductive Science

8}

A sperm and an egg separately constitute a potential human. But when they unite, the result is a human being from the moment of fertilization. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Hedin

Date
February 7, 2024

Categories
Biology
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Life Sciences
Tagged
, Adam Frank, American Journal of Physics, astronomers, black hole, cells, consciousness, Denyse O'Leary, information, intelligence, intelligent design, James Barham, James Shapiro, life, Michael Levin, Mind Matters, natural, naturalism, panpsychism, self-replication, sentience, signaling, symbiosis, teleology, Tufts University, University of Chicago, unnatural, vitalism}

What Is the Essence of Life?

_{Eric Hedin
February 7, 2024

Biology, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Life Sciences

8}

The strength of the intelligent design explanation for life lies in its full-orbed ability to address all aspects of life. Read More ›