Sentientism

This episode is a bonus cross-post from my conversation about Sentientism with Nick Pendergrast on his Freedom of Species show on the 3CR community radio station based in Melbourne. Nick, who was my guest on Sentientism back on episode 88, turns the tables and asks me what's real, what matters and how to make a better world.

Make sure to tune in to 3CR and subscribe to Nick's Freedom of Species and Progressive Podcast Australia podcasts.

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

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Lucas studied and practiced architecture in the U.S., Canada, and India before leaving it all behind in an effort to rethink what it is to live a meaningful life. Since then he's traveled the world, started a philanthropic enterprise, Haven Hearts, and written a beautiful, compassionate book. Along the way he enjoys playing frisbee, making things with his hands, and befriending every dog who crosses his path.

He is the author of The Weight of Empathy, a travel memoir. Lucas describes it as an exploration of both our relationship with animals and his own personal process of learning how to be a compassionate person in an often violent and uncaring world.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:15 Lucas' Intro - author & social enterprise entrepreneur

- Architecture, travelling, volunteering, writing "The Weight of Empathy", benefitting the world

03:28 What's Real?

- Non-religious parents, "recovering Catholic" mother, father from a Jewish family

- Raised as a child on a "hippy" commune

- "From the moment I knew the word I probably identified as an atheist", but not anti-theist

- Some "woo-woo" spirituality. Tarot cards, divination, magic

- Open minded, rational, scientific way of thinking

- Experimenting w/levitation & telekinesis "It was not very successful"

- Religious inspiration in art/culture. Community & separation

- Where people turn to for explanations of the unexplainable

- Alan Watts & Daoism

- Hallucinogenics & mushrooms

- A "hybrid rationalist spiritual view"

- Carl Sagan

- "There's an inherent quality in matter... that is self-organising"

- From interstellar dust to stars to elements to life to sentience

- "Sentient beings are a way for the universe to observe itself"

- "Maybe if you took mushrooms you'd describe the same things in a different way"

- Teleology, fine tuning argument & the anthropic principle

- Multiple worlds

29:34 What & Who Matters?

- Sensitive, pacifistic tendencies

- Communism (Russian family history), justice, equality

- An affinity with non-human animals (dogs, cats & wild animal)

- Loving the family chickens, but eating them. "These were chickens I knew"

- Inventing a justifying narrative as a child that humans need to eat the meat of animals because "we're made of meat"

...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.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Adam is a Lecturer in Env. Sci. at Deakin Uni. He works on questions related to ecology, conservation & society. He is most interested in: i) how concern for Animals informs environmental values & practice, ii) the env. potential of transitioning to plant-based agri & iii) more critical approaches to how the sciences consider Animals. Adam wants to leverage research to help create a better future for Animals, the environment & humans.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:57 Adam's Intro - "An animal person". Vegan activist, lecturer & scientist

- The idea that animals matter "took over"

03:16 What's Real?

- Catholic grandma, mother traumatised by Catholicism, non-religious father

- High-school: enthusiastic atheism & "an affinity with science"

- Uni: learning about the social history & context of religions

- "I'm a proper atheist... I just don't think there's anything there"

- "How I think about reality is grounded in natural science"

- Humility re: complex systems (e.g. social, envir)

- Scientism. Science might not have all of the answers

- Reading fantasy & sci-fi: "Religion is just another fantasy book"

- Religious friends. Talking about bible inconsistencies & faith & submission

- "Letting your thinking be done by others - I'm not into that"

- Scepticism "show me the evidence"

- The positives of religious community & connection

- Environment: "Why can't we love it for what it is rather than investing some sort of supernaturalness into it"

- Faith vs. evidence & reason

- Pseudoscience & "pretend naturalism"

- Conspiracy theories, woo & Goop

- "Pseudoscience tries to use the language of science to trick people"

- QAnon: "That stuff is batshit"

- Teaching science communication

- Flat Earth, Cults & "True Believers"

- The "Oh No Ross & Carrie" podcast https://ohnopodcast.com/

- "Religion is an accepted mass delusion"

- Heaven & hell: "It's a good way to control people"

33:40 What Matters?

- Social cohesion & relationships

- "Being good to the person next to you... not harming"

- Pluralism: virtues, deontology, utilitarianism, consequentialism

- Evolution of morality: from having young that need care

- "Survival of the most caring?"

- "I don't want to just propogate my genes any more - that's why I'm not down the sperm bank every day"

- "Ethicists & philosophers often talk shit"

- The frequent disregard of conservationists for sentients (e.g. culling)

...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.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Macken is a writer and science educator. He hosts a weekly podcast about animals, Species, recommended by both Apple and BBC’s Wildlife magazine. He is currently studying anthropology at the University of Oxford. He has written a children’s book about animal symbiosis, Animal SideKicks.

*Content Warning - description of violence*

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome 

01:54 Macken's Intro: Species podcast, writer, grad student

03:19 What's Real?

- Never exposed to the supernatural so "I never really had occasion to believe in it"

- Dad is a Pastafarian pastor

- Raised by two atheists (who were raised Protestant & Catholic in Northern Ireland during The Troubles)

- "Their first impression of religion in life was one that was related to needless violence... seeing someone get shot for their religious affiliation"

- "I've never seen even a slightly good reason to believe in any of that stuff..."

- Culturally still Christian (Santa!)

- Is spiritual but not religious... "trying to have your cake & eat it too?"

- Are those who grew up religious more likely to end up anti-religious than those who didn't?

- Odd that atheism requires such focus vs. arguing against the existence of Santa

- The risks of patronising deference to religion re: sexism, homophobia, bigotry

- Losing religious belief might harm some people

- Why is using evidence & reason the best approach? What if "I just don't like it"

- Different forms of evidence & reasoning

- Biases, denial, gullibility & skepticism

25:40 What Matters & Who Matters?

- Utilitarianism in theory & nihilism in practice

- Vegan "If I wasn't vegan I'd feel super guilty all the time"

- "I wasn't really raised with a moral framework... there was one rule... from my dad... 'don't be a dick'"

- My mum gave me a list: "One girlfriend at a time... never get a grade below a B..."

- Evolved ethical intuitions

- "We're an altruistic, really prosocial species... we're also a really evil, horrible species"

- A pre-disposition to moral strictness "I didn't swear for years... I basically haven't lied at all (maybe this is a bit of a lie)."

- Testing utilitarian on thought experiments "but if you followed me around all day I'd be acting very much the same way as my ancestors (except veganism)... family first, friends second, everyone else when I can & it's easy"

- Effective Altruism

...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.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Jordi is an ethical vegan, a zoologist and a veganism content writer and consultant. He has been involved in different aspects of animal protection for many years. He became well-known for securing ethical veganism as a protected characteristic under the UK Equality Act 2010 in a landmark Employment Tribunal case. He has worked doing campaigning, lobbying, scientific research, undercover investigations and consultancy. He has authored several books, including “Ethical Vegan: A Personal and Political Journey to Change the World”.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome 

01:14 Jordi's Intro

- Adding new identities: Zoology, ethical vegan, activist, writer.

- Legal case re: ethical veganism becoming a protected philosophical belief in the UK

- Writing "The Ethical Vegan"

03:26 What's Real?

- Growing up in Catalonia as a Roman Catholic (like 99.9% of people there)

- Becoming atheist as a child despite "I never met one... I assumed that everybody else believed in the Catholic god"

- Other cultures seemed to be "pre-Catholic"

- Living under the oppression of Franco's fascist dictatorship "Catalan culture survived underground." "As a child... the message you get is 'this reality is not the real one'" "I have to maintain a reality against the reality around me" That led to questioning Catholicism

- Being bullied "The world was a completely hostile place to me... the country... the streets"

- Discovering the welcome of the animal world & nature "I could see there was something better"

- Catalan Catholicism was softer. More open to doubt than the fascist-friendly, Spanish version

- Internal struggle at 12 yrs "What happens if I don't believe"

- "Protestants tend to become agnostics. Catholics tend to become atheists."

- "I prayed to god to make me an atheist... so I can discover you by myself"

- Being anti-religious at first, but softening with age

- Secular Buddhism

- Formal institutional religions vs. more personal/flexible religions & spirituality

- "I built my philosophy from instinct"

- Naturalistic & mystical/spiritual connections with nature

- "That bark seems more important than what you were just saying" :)

- The same feeling of awe can be interpreted in spiritual or naturalistic ways

- Jordi's 13 hour lecture on "From Nothing to Everything - a Natural History of the Universe"

- "Reality is a subjective thing but also shared"... "Find the points in common"

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

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

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Constantine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, Director of Lex Academic & a Fellow of the RSA. He describes his philosophical interests as “unfashionably broad, but I work primarily in the philosophy of action, moral psychology & interpersonal understanding. I also have an interest in the psychology of philosophy, as advanced by Hume, Nietzsche, & Wittgenstein.” He spent most of his twenties as a theatre director & playwright.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome 

01:15 Constantine's Intro

- "I'm looking forward to finding out if I'm a Sentientist or not"

- Teaching & researching philosophy

- Phil of action, Wittgenstein & Hume, virtue ethics, anti-vegan rhetoric

- Rejecting the separation betweeen human & non-human animals "Who are 'we' anyway?"

- The value of improving human worldviews (epistemology & ethics)

- Beliefs & values & reasons driving action

08:07 What's Real?

- Greek Orthodox Christian upbringing but "science was taken very seriously"

- Born in India, living in Zimbabwe

- Being placed in "Protestant" vs. "Catholic" or "Ethics" class

- Agnostic as a teenager

- Degree at Oxford in phil & theology "By the end of that degree I was atheist"

- "The more you read about it [the bible] as a human text..."

- Studying Christian moral reasoning & Nietzsche

- Wittgenstein & Kierkegaard

- "I'm not one of those Dawkins style atheists"

- "I just don't have this faith"

- "Everyday life was very naturalistic"

- Culturally Christian

- Those who stay religious but update the ethics

- "I think there are things we can't explain"

- Doubt as central to science & naturalism

- "I know the precise second I switched from agnostic to atheist" in a phil of religion lecture: "Just because it's possible something exists & you can't disprove it's existence doesn't mean you're agnostic about it... a 3 headed dragon in some other galaxy." Atheism & Adragonism :)

- Norms re: religious rituals/marriage

- Why do religious organisations get a pass re: basic ethics? (sexism, homophobia, abuse)?

- Atheist societies often suffer from similar problems

- The good that can come from religion

- Allen Ginsberg re: homophobia in Cuba

- Post-truth, QAnon, homeopathy, Flat Earth... epistemology fails

- Refusing medical treatment on religious grounds

- Vountary euthanasia

- Wearing the hijab

- Personal autonomy, but don't harm others

35:18 What (and who) matters?

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

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

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

I had the pleasure of talking about Sentientism on the Clearer Thinking podcast hosted by Spencer Greenberg. This is a cross-post of our episode so make sure you go subscribe to Clearer Thinking too. Clearer Thinking is a podcast about ideas that truly matter. If you enjoy learning about powerful, practical concepts and frameworks, or wish you had more deep, intellectual conversations in your life, then you’ll love this podcast! 

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

Sentientism answers those questions with a commitment to "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings."

Find out more at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

There's a full transcript here: https://clearerthinkingpodcast.com/episode/090 

Show notes (thanks Josh!):

How can we encourage people to increase their critical thinking and reliance on evidence in the current information climate? What types of evidence "count" as valid, useful, or demonstrative? And what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of those types? Could someone reasonably come to believe just about anything, provided that they live through very specific sets of experiences? What does it mean to have a "naturalistic" epistemology? How does a philosophical disorder differ from a moral failure? Historically speaking, where does morality come from? Is moral circle expansion always good or praiseworthy? What sorts of entities deserve moral consideration?

Jamie Woodhouse works on the Sentientism worldview ("evidence, reason, and compassion for all sentient beings") — refining the philosophy, raising awareness of the idea, and building communities and movements around it. After a quarter century in the corporate world he is a now an independent consultant, coach, and volunteer. You can follow Jamie on Twitter at @JamieWoodhouse or email him at [email protected].

Here are a few more links related to Sentientism:

Karthik is MD of the Fish Welfare Initiative, India. He has a background in animal welfare & ethical livelihoods. He is a PhD scholar at the National Academy of Legal Studies & Research in India & previously managed the university’s Animal Law Centre. While there, researched the unethical practices associated with industrialised egg production in India.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:36 Karthik's Intro

- Humility, curiosity & wonder

- Leading the Fish Welfare Initiative in India

- PhD studying freedom for queer people "I never had the opportunity growing up to fully express myself, be myself"

- How would we take decisions if we had more freedom & hope

04:01 What's Real?

- A deeply religious Hindu, upper class extended family in South India

- Becoming sceptical of biases like "darker skin meant some kind of bane from god"

- Religion operated in a deeply heteronormative way. Being queer fed the scepticism

- Women in the family with a deep empathy, including for animals

- Being one of the few male vegetarians (most of the women were)

- Brahmin caste dynamics & the "purity" of being vegetarian

- Caste discrimination

- Studying "science, technology & society" & the tools to unlearn the "cultural baggages" and to re-learn a different way re: animal rights

- A very difficult journey but "I would call myself an atheist now"

- "Hinduism had plenty of opportunities to explore queer life but it no longer does"

- Progressive & fundamentalist religious movements

- "Most of the bigotries we've subsumed into Hinduism are fairly modern - at least in the Indian context"

- "The most liberating thing for transgender people in this country has been to derive power from a lot of the [Hindu] rituals"... pilgramages

- A scientific way of finding meaning

- "Life is such an anomaly"

- "I find meaning in human actions"

- Going from being bullied to seeing his own students standing up to bullies

- "Homosexuality was recently decriminalised"

- "One of the arcs tending towards a better future"

- "You're automatically challenged if you have an atheistic worldview"

- "A lot of my relatives... think that I'm homosexual probably because I abandoned god"

- A partner pushed to the brink of suicide by their orthodox Muslim family because of their homosexuality

- "There's a caste angle to how animal cruelty works in this country"

- Animal sacrifice & killing vermin tasks fall to the lower castes

- "Enormous cruelty in the name of carrying on this legacy"

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

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

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Barbara is emerita professor of anthropology at William & Mary and a freelance science writer and public speaker. The author of seven books, including the new Animals’ Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Animals in Captivity and in the Wild, Barbara focuses on animal emotion and cognition, the ethics of our relationships with animals, and the evolutionary history of language, culture, and religion. Her book How Animals Grieve has been translated into 7 languages and her TED talk on animal love and grief has now received over 3 million views.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:39 Barbara’s Intro

05:05 What’s Real?

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

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

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Carter is Policy Director and Board Member of the Fair Start Movement, an organisation dedicated to giving every child a fair start in life. He is the author of Justice as a Fair Start in Life. Carter began his career as an Honors Program appointee to the U.S. Department of Justice. He later served as a legal adviser to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in the national security law division. He wrote his thesis reformulating the right to have children under Jeremy Waldron, his extensive academic work on family planning has been published by Yale, Duke, and Northwestern Universities, as well as in peer-reviewed pieces.. He has served on the Steering Committee of the Population Ethics and Policy Research Project and was a Visiting Scholar at the Uehiro Center, both at the University of Oxford. He has taught at several law schools in the U.S., served as a peer reviewer for the journal Bioethics, and most recently managed an animal protection strategic impact litigation program.

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 here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome 

01:21 Carter's Intro

- Fair Start Movement: Shifting family planning from prioritising the desires of parents to prioritising the needs of future children

- Achieving the SDGs

- A future of 4-6 billion humans vs. 12-14 billion

- Economic growth & inequity & ecosystem factors

- The right to a fair start in life

03:54 What's Real?

- Naturalistically based civil rights

- Rejecting the flawed "science" used to justify discrimination

- Truth & justice

- "Scientific justifications for the denigrations of non-humans also fell apart under scrutiny"

- Reading Peter Singer. Applying civil rights lessons to animal rights

- Exploring the human population issue

- Suffering, flourishing & relative autonomy

- Climate/environment limitations on autonomy & flourishing

- "Science had become god" & a naturalistic family

- "What we've learned about non-human cognition really should embarrass decades & decades of human living as completely unethical"

- "It's our children, grandchildren &great-grandchildren that will suffer the most because we've failed to respect the non-human world"

- Nagel's "View from nowhere"... "we all mutually agree to avoid that pain... that doesn't require supernatural grounding"

- Systemic failures in law & early education

14:25 What Matters?

- Naturalistic ethics

- Social contract ethics

- "Would you consent to that?"

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

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

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.