Michael is head of philosophy at the University of Liverpool. His current work spans transhumanism, death & meaning. He has written a vast range of topics, including on whether non-human animals can have meaningful lives & "What It Is Like to Be a Bot". He says of his work: "As a philosopher, I am a generalist, which is a nice way of saying that I have done many different things & I am not really an expert on anything in particular."

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”

Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:42 Michael's Intro

- What it means to be human, to live a good life, a meaningful life

- Transhumanism & human enhancement

- Meaning & life & death

- When dealing with foundational, broad questions: "It is very difficult to be precise... I hardly ever feel that 'now I've got it'"

06:06 What's Real?

- "It's much easier to point at something & disuss whether that is real"

- "If you can name something then in some sense it must be real"

- Raised #Christian & sent to Sunday school & Bible classes & regular confessions to the village priest

- "I sort of believed there was a god when I was little"

- A god watching me "a means of controlling me... Big Brother in heaven... it was just oppressive... a punishing god, a critical god"

- "I didn't feel the presence... I just believed that there was something because I was told there was something"

- "Very quickly I dropped my religious beliefs... as soon as I started to think for myself I became an #atheist"

- "It just faded away... it was always superficial"

- "Some people take me for a Christian because I share some of the intuitions religious believers have"

- "I'm not entirely comfortable with calling myself a naturalist although I don't believe in anything supernatural"

- "Naturalism is also very programmatic & ideological"

- "There are a lot of things in this world that we cannot understand...& some naturalists are very confident that we can understand everything & that's there's no mystery... there is a lot of mystery."

- Max More's #transhumanism ... pits science vs. religion

- Origins of the universe & life & consciousness "we don't know!" Science might figure it out - it might not

- "... whatever there is is part of nature"

- Over-confidence vs. humility

- The subjective & the objective

- Plato & Parmenides: "being is more real than becoming"... "but we live in a world of becoming... how can that be less real?"

- The "normative use of reality"... to "declare something else as not real... a term to deny something else its reality"

- The denial of animal suffering "not so common any more" & the #cartesian model

- "If you see an animal in pain you know it is in pain... it takes a lot of willful blindness not to acknowledge..."

- "If we assume the world is good & we see all the apparent suffering... then it cannot be... A moral reason behind denying the suffering of animals"

- JW "An echo of a religious mode of thought that's then re-built in a humanist mode of thought"

- "If we have evolved naturally... there's no reason to assume our brains are capable of understanding the universe... what possible use can it have?"

- "A naturalistic perspective should actually teach us humility"

29:03 What Matters?

...and much more. Full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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