Do we have obligations to beings which are conscious but not sentient?
Since these words are used in many ways, I’ll clear up my usage. By conscious I just mean having any type of experience (sight, hearing, touch, thinking, etc.) and by sentient I mean having positively or negatively *valenced* experiences, I.e. happiness & suffering.
Most people would probably say that we have at least some obligations to all sentient beings. For example, we shouldn’t burn a cat alive because it’ll cause suffering to the cat; it’s disvaluable for its own sake.
Should we extend this to all conscious beings, even if they don’t have any emotions or feel any pain/pleasure? I’m picturing some entity which can see, hear, touch things, and intend to do things or take actions, but “on the inside” it doesn’t care (in the emotional sense) about anything. What obligations might we have to this type of being? Should we value its intentions/plans, or should we disregard them since there’s no emotions attached? I know a hedonistic utilitarian may disregard them completely, what would others say?