CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
This article is part of the Research TopicDecoding Nonhuman Minds: Innovative Approaches to Animal ConsciousnessView all articles
Everything and Nothing Is Conscious: Default Assumptions in Science and Ethics
Provisionally accepted
- New York University, New York City, United States
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Historically, scientists and philosophers have tended to assume that animals lack consciousness until evidence shows otherwise. Recently, however, some researchers have proposed reversing this assumption. Other options are available as well; for example, in addition to assuming that all animals are conscious, we can assume that all living beings are conscious, that all beings with neurons are conscious, that all beings with complex cognition are conscious, or even that all beings are conscious. I examine these options from scientific and ethical perspectives, showing that different default assumptions can be appropriate for different purposes and in different contexts. I also suggest that a default assumption of consciousness may often be best for both ethics and science.
Keywords: Consciousness, sentience, null hypothesis, Animal Welfare, AI welfare
Received: 06 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sebo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jeff Sebo, jrs477@nyu.edu
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