Talk:Author

Sentient or Sapient?
According to Wikipedia, sentience is the ability to feel (often the ability to suffer); sapience is the ability to 'act with appropriate judgement'. Both are used near-interchangably in SF, so that's no help. So which do we want to use? I'm pretty sure Mary-Sues are considered (by the PPC) to be neither - they can neither act of their own volition, or have actual feelings. Actually, saying that, they seem to be more sapient than they are sentient - they can act and react, but are not capable of actual suffering.

And the context seems to back that up. We're talking about murder - and it seems far more likely that you'd define that as 'don't kill things that will suffer thereby'. In fact, Wikipedia states that 'The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, which is held to entail certain rights.' Huinesoron (talk) 04:35, April 26, 2014 (UTC)