121: "Compassion is a boundless capacity" - Lisa Kemmerer - Sentientism

Lisa is an activist and academic who specialises in anymal and environmental ethics. She was an associate professor of philosophy and religion at Montana State University Billings until she retired in 2020 to found and lead the educational, vegan umbrella organization, Tapestry. Lisa is the author or editor of ten books including Animals and World Religions. She has also written over 100 articles and book chapters. Lisa coined the term anymal as a “correct” term for non-human animals.

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

01:28 Lisa's Intro

01:58 What's Real?

- Linking epistemology & ethics

- "My mind sees a continuum"

- Being born with "a more eastern way of thinking"

- Metaphysical & practical concerns

- "I don't tend to use philosophy in an abstract way"

- "I have very little faith in human reasoning... we are not rational beings."

- Descartes reasoning that anymals aren't sentient

- "We cannot trust our reason... that doesn't mean reason's out... we need to do it with humility"

- "It's the extent of our power that makes our arrogance dangerous"

- "Roe vs Wade was just overturned... don't tell me humans are rational."

- "Trump's reality... I don't want to know about that"

- The USA: "Democracy requires education & we're not an educated public"

- "Our reason is flawed... we need to use it... we have to be sceptical"

11:53 What Matters?

- "Cultures & people - that's where you have to work"

- "To try to bring change I need to work with humans where they're at"

- "I can see the beauty in it... and I can see the problems in it"

- "Cruelty is not a good thing... compassion is a good thing... fairly universal"

- "I love religions... they have a committed strong belief... I can get a hold of it"

- "I have never, never talked to a serious Christian, & had them, after a serious conversation, say 'it's OK, what we're doing with anymals'... an atheist? - whole different picture."

- Fowler's stages of religion "I was there (stage 6) in my teens"

- "These religions are rock solid in teaching the core ethic... of compassion"

- Wild animal suffering & hell as challenges to a benevolent god

- "Western faiths tend to be very rigid..." Eastern faiths are more pluralistic/flexible?

- Compassion / empathy as central to Lisa's family's ethics

- "When you live in a community you can't tolerate cruelty"

...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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Thanks Graham.