Montrovant
Fuzzy bears!
Yes, you dumbbucket , sentience does entail the ability to suffer, and has nothing to so with intelligence. The wealth of definitions you posted confirmed this, or have you forgotten what you yourself posted? Sentience is necessary for suffering. Intelligence is not.
Show me evidence that plants suffer. The fact that they send out distress calls and communicate chemically in fantastic ways does note they suffer. Now you are anthropomorphizing plants.
Is it not having intelligence that divides animals from plants? Couldn't we conclude, then, that since plants do not suffer but animals do, that it may be that intelligence is what allows for suffering?
No, it is not simply intelligence that divides animals from plants. Plants do demonstrate an "intelligence" of sorts, in the form of extremely sophisticated interaction with their surroundings, and certain animals have barely any intelligence at all. One of the biggest defining features for animals is that they are heterotrophs, and need to feed on other matter. Plants, even carnivorous ones, do not. They get it from the sun. Carnivorous plants can feed on other matter when necessary, but if they are getting enough sun, don't need it.
It is demonstrably and categoricAlly wrong that intelligence has anything to do with suffering. The two parts of the brain responsible for pain reception and intelligent thoughts are distinct. The ability to add 2+2 is handled by an entirely different region of the brain. Animals don't have neocortex like humans, but they all possess the "reptilian brain" (including us) which allows pain sensation. Evolutionary, it is completely illogical to say humans can feel pain, but no other animals before us could.
I have never claimed that no other animal before us could feel pain. I'm not sure where you're pulling that strawman from.
Your definition of intelligence is obviously different from mine. I have never seen anything resembling evidence of intelligence from plant life. Intelligence is born of the brain, and plants don't have brains.
Intelligence and suffering may come from separate parts of the brain, but they do both come from the brain. That is the link and my point; animals, which have brains (other than a select few, such as jellyfish, which do not), are able to feel pain and suffering. So consider it coincidental rather than causal.
I'd still like to hear the difference between equal respect of other species' interests and equal status.