The correct description would be ‘Pain is taking place in this animal’; not, as we commonly say, ‘This animal feels pain’, for the words ‘this’ and ‘feels’ really smuggle in the assumption that it is a ‘self’ or ‘soul’ or ‘consciousness’ standing above the sensations and organising them into an ‘experience’ as we do. Such sentience without consciousness, I admit, we cannot imagine: not because it never occurs in us, but because, when it does, we describe ourselves as being ‘unconscious’. And rightly. The fact that animals react to pain much as we do is, of course, no proof that they are
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