Citation
Brown, Culum (2017) A risk assessment and phylogenetic approach. Animal Sentience 16(3)
Commentary Type
Invited Commentary
Thread
Jonathan Birch, Animal sentience and the precautionary principle
Abstract
The precautionary principal is often invoked when talking about the evidence of sentience in animals, largely because we can never be certain what any animal is thinking or feeling. Birch (2017) offers a preliminary framework for the use of the precautionary principal for animal sentience combining an epistemic rule with a decision rule. I extend this framework by adding an evolutionary phylogentic approach which spreads the burden of proof across broad taxonomic groups and a risk assessment component which magnifies the likely impact by the number of animals involved.
DOI
10.51291/2377-7478.1219
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