What Is It Like to Be a Cockroach? Exploring Invertebrate Sentience

Sentience—or the capacity for subjective experience—is important because it provides critical information about our moral and justice obligations towards other species. Although there are often formidable conceptual and empirical challenges in ascertaining which animals are sentient, a range of approaches can be employed to provide us with enough information to guide relevant action. This chapter reviews recent work on invertebrate sentience that suggests that the capacity for subjective experience may be more widespread among invertebrate species than is often recognised. In particular, research provides us with some degree of confidence that coleoid cephalopods (octopuses, squids, and cuttlefishes), decapod crustaceans, and many insects species have the capacity for sentience. More research is needed on these and other invertebrate taxa, but the available evidence provides grounds that should guide our direct justice obligations to these species in ways that can promote their overall flourishing.