Indeed, my post was somewhat inspired by my wife Diana Fleischman’s discussion back in 2013 of whether it’s OK for ethical vegans to eat shellfish, given the uncertainty about whether their little ganglia carry any sentience; see link here.
My hunch as an evolutionary psychologist is that, given the extremely strong selection pressures on shellfish to resist being eaten by starfish, and their apparent use of all possible muscular effort and endurance to keep their shells closed when being attacked by starfish, if shellfish are sentient about anything, they’re most likely to be sentient about resisting starfish attacks, and being motivated to treat them as a negative experience.
Hi Tristan—fair points.
Indeed, my post was somewhat inspired by my wife Diana Fleischman’s discussion back in 2013 of whether it’s OK for ethical vegans to eat shellfish, given the uncertainty about whether their little ganglia carry any sentience; see link here.
My hunch as an evolutionary psychologist is that, given the extremely strong selection pressures on shellfish to resist being eaten by starfish, and their apparent use of all possible muscular effort and endurance to keep their shells closed when being attacked by starfish, if shellfish are sentient about anything, they’re most likely to be sentient about resisting starfish attacks, and being motivated to treat them as a negative experience.