The idea of anthropocentrism has been well documented in humans: The feeling that humans are special, and more intelligent in a way, than other animals. Additionally, it also entails the feeling that the Universe specially favours human existence. If one realises how dominant and rampant these ideas are in human discourse, one clearly sees human sentience, and the perceived superiority, as a potentially flawed quality.

Let’s take the humanistic side out of it and the phenomenon of sentience becomes profound. Psychologists in the 20th century were grappling with the idea of self-actualisation and Dąbrowskian developmental stages. In other words, the idea of self-discovery is inherently tied to understanding not just one’s identity but to understanding why humans ‘feel’ they are special in the first place. A fool starts by thinking he/she is better than his/her peers. Foolishness resides in not updating this understanding by meeting and learning from others. In other words, he might learn many things and yet not know his place and why, or whether, he is unique. However, the very idea of development is based on the premise that one learns from disintegration. The more robust the learning process, the more conscious and self-aware one becomes. 

Sentience is then categorised as the ability to separate oneself from the baseline behaviour of one’s surroundings, not for rebellion but for clarity. 

If we take the example of animals, the process of deviating from the group places them at the danger of perishing, and therefore, they never have the liberty to discover themselves. Humans are able to do this due to an increased life expectancy and superiority in the food chain. However, being human is only a necessary and not a sufficient condition for becoming sentient. Suffering, trauma, disintegration and developments from the said incidents are what makes humans truly cognisant of the flaws in human nature. 

If this type of consciousness was indeed a useful thing, trauma would be celebrated and wore as a badge of honour. However, the castigation of trauma and the need to ‘treat’ it show evidence of the fact that divergence is not welcomed. It is a scientific fact that trauma gets inherited by future generations. Some could argue, with significant caution and contention, that this may be why Ashkenazi Jews were believed to be highly intelligent in the late twentieth century. In other words, it provides an immense developmental opportunity that stands at the gate to the thing humans celebrate themselves for : consciousness. 

If this consciousness truly involves separation from the society, it is inherently a flaw as it does not ensure survival. Humans calling their intelligence special then seems akin to them celebrating their own flaws without realising it. It is inadvertently, intellectually, and idiosyncratically ironical.