Cebuan (Cebby) Bliss (https://twitter.com/CebbyBliss) is a PhD candidate researching animal and biodiversity governance at Radboud University in the Netherlands (https://www.ru.nl/english/people/bliss-c/).

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

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

We discuss:

0:00 Welcome

1:03 Cebuan's Intro - from the corporate world to academia

- Environmental & animal welfare governance

4:17 What's Real?

- Growing up in the UK in a Christian religious context, but not in a religious family

- Having a naturalistic mindset from the start

- Linking food to animals & going vegetarian at 6 yrs old (later vegan)

- The commodification of life in animal agriculture

- Seeing foxhunting, shooting & other traditional "countryside pursuits"

- Atheism, agnosticism & developing an appreciation for eastern philosophy & spirituality through yoga

7:20 What Matters?

- Compassion, sentience & avoiding harm

- "May all beings be happy & free from suffering... may the thoughts, words and actions of my life contribute to the happiness and freedom for all."

11:55 Psychedelics, spiritualism & naturalism

- Psychedelics & the perspectives they can open up

- The precautionary principle. Acting in uncertainty

- Bayesian thinking & probability

14:37 Supernaturalism, Religion & Morality

- Using Holism "circle of life!" to justify harming/killing others

- The centrality of compassion

18:16 Moral Scope & Considerability

- Anthropocentrism, Sentiocentrism, Biocentrism, Ecocentrism

- Combining ecocentrism &  a compassionate animal welfare perspective. Compassionate conservation

- Invasive species governance

- How we categorise non-human animals (invasive, companion, farmed, vermin...) 

- Sentience as a grounding

- The instrumental or intrinsic value of ecosystems

25:00 The Future - breaking out of anthropocentrism

- Naturalism & sentiocentrism vs. social norms and indoctrination

- The damage caused by anthropocentrism

- EU Lisbon Treaty (2009) recognition of animal sentience

- Human cultures & customs & industry used as justification for harm & killing

- Transformative governance: Integrated, inclusive, informed, adaptive. Tackling root causes

- Changing entire systems. Social/economic...

- "Humans can be thought of as an invasive species"

- Invasive species can improve biodiversity

29:05 Sentientist Development Goals / Universal Declaration of Sentient Rights?

...and much more. Full show notes on YouTube and Sentientism.info. 

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