The root of the confusion is that the word 'conscious' has a number of different meanings in English. The word sentient is often confused with the word sapient, which can connote knowledge, higher consciousness, or apperception. Sentience is the capacity for basic consciousness - the ability to feel or perceive, not necessarily including the faculty of self-awareness. Sapience is essentially a higher function than sentience. Sapience is synonymous with some usages of the term sentient, though the two are not exactly equal sentience is the ability to sense or feel, while sapience is the ability to think about sensations, feelings and ideas. Sapience is the ability of an organism or entity to act with judgement or intelligence.
