Animal sentience: an epistemological rupture in the biological sciences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2026iss30.5438Keywords:
sentience, stress, animals, animal husbandry, historical epistemology, machines, rupture, physiologyAbstract
The concept of animal sentience refers to the capacity of animals to experience both positive and negative emotions. This article argues that this notion, understood as a biological concept, constitutes an epistemological rupture with the traditional view of animals classified as productive. To support this thesis, the notion of an epistemological rupture, derived from French historical epistemology, is examined, and the ways in which the first empirical studies on stress in these animals spurred the emergence of sentience as a new field of knowledge are analyzed. Thus, it is argued that this conceptual transition radically reconfigures the assumptions that have historically defined animals in production systems.
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