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AdeleneDawner comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 3 - Less Wrong
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Actually, I'm pretty sure snakes are sentient. They're not sapient, though, as far as we can tell.
(Yes, I'm aware that the error is in the original text.)
I have seen so many people use them interchangeably, and I think I've even seen dictionaries disagree about which is which, that I've pretty much given up on the words 'sentient' and 'sapient'.
Even though people use the words inconsistently, those people who distinguish them at all do so consistently, and you can use cognates to remember which is which: ‘sense’ = ‘feel’, so ‘sentient’ = ‘feeling’; ‘Homo sapiens’ = ‘wise man’, so ‘sapient’ = ‘thinking’ (more literally ‘discerning’ in the Latin).
I usually take it for granted that snakes are sentient but not sapient, although I don't really know enough about snakes to be sure of either.
But there's another idea, neither of which these words quite captures, that seems to be what really matters to Harry: self-awareness (‘anything that lives and thinks and knows itself’). A snake may sense its prey, but does it sense itself? It may discern that its prey is food, but does it discern that its self is a self?
Please don't allow arguments about definitions be presented as arguments about substance, as objecting to something previously said. Distinguish them by making it clear that your observation is on a separate and unrelated topic of English language, and thus doesn't constitute an irrational argument.
Sorry, I thought it would be obvious enough what I was objecting to.
It is, I just think it's a healthy debiasing style to keep the intentions explicit.
Upvoted. This should be on the advice-to-new-users page, if it isn't already.