Word: sentient
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What the current hubbub over political lying ignores or drowns out is the fact that there are disabling truths, messy realities that positively stymie adequate response unless their particulars are reduced to deceptive simplicities. Every sentient human being knows this from daily experience. What has shattered in the public sphere, as epitomized by the Bush-Clinton campaign, is the once agreed-upon etiquette of lying...
...important thing to remember is that this is not a matter of humanitarian issues versus practical ones. A sick child's need for an organ transplant is also a humanitarian issue. The case of Theresa Ann forces us to question whether a baby without the capacity for sentient experience can even be an object of humanitarian concern--whether, in fact, she can be called human...
...first responsibility, as the only sentient and rational species around, is the preservation of this planet, which in the end includes our own preservation. We cannot assume, as we have always assumed, that what is good for human beings is good for the rest of the world. We must accept that the opposite is true, and that in the end it will save us from destroying ourselves...
...have it both ways. Either human beings are metaphysically and morally different from all other species (in which case our first responsibility is to other humans, not rare beetles), or else we are no better than other forms of sentient life and shouldn't give ourselves airs (as environmentalists believe...
...first the piece sounds more like a rant from across the street than like the compassionate campfire chat it was. But as Search for Signs reaches its climax, artist and author stride over these nettles. If this isn't a goose-bump experience for you, you're just not sentient...