Sentientism

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 hello@sentientism.info. Here are a few more links related to Sentientism: Sentientism YouTube channel Sentientism podcast Sentientism website Sentientism Facebook group All other places to find Sentientism (including Twitter, Reddit, Discord, and many others)

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 Biological anthropology, animal advocacy & writing 28 years in academia then freelance science writing & speaking Animal cognition & animal-human relationships Watching Jane Goodall & Dian Fossey go from scholarship to advocacy… doing fieldwork with apes… “Soon it became clear I wanted to work for animals as well as on animals” 05:05 What’s Real? Growing up in New Jersey Raised Presbyterian, sent to church & sunday school “It wasn’t really part of my identity”, more background & community “My parents didn’t question that there was a god, that god was… in charge of us.” “I fell into that… & then came college” First person in the family to go to college. “I arrived with my Bible – within 2 or 3 semesters that was kind of exploded” Taking theology & pre-med classes Agnostic then atheist Choosing evolution & science Mum at 88: “I wonder if what I thought all those years is really true… is there a god?” “I was never particularly interested in reconciling religion & science” Refusing money from The Templeton Foundation… “I don’t accept the claim that there’s no agenda” Religious ethical problems: Homophoba, sexism, fears of hell, human dominion Writing “Evolving God”. Finding the earliest roots of religious expression in non-human animal imagination/rule-following/empathy/perspective-taking Jane Goodall’s claim that chimpanzees feel awe & wonder The universal “religious” sense Frans de Waal “I think that I am relentlessly naturalistic” Working with primates “Concentrically my circles began to widen” ...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.

Dr. Richard Firth-Godbehere PhD is one of the world’s leading experts on disgust and emotions. He is an independent researcher and consultant in the history, language, science & philosophy of emotions & an honorary research fellow at the centre for the history of the emotions, Queen Mary University of London. Richard’s first book, "A Human History of Emotions" (also known as "Homo Emoticus") will soon be published in over a dozen languages in countries ranging from Japan to the USA, from Australia to Brazil. 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  01:27 Richard's Intro - The history of human emotions - Academia & public engagement - History "never talked about feelings" but wars start "because someone gets annoyed" - You can't really separate emotion & rationality "You cannot make a decision unless you feel something" - Interdisciplinary 06:00 What's Real? - Lapsed Catholic mother & an "its all bloody rubbish-arian" father - Scientific family; Doctors, engineers, nurses. "We didn't go into the seminary" - Joining mum in a spiritual phase. Tarot, mediums, psychics... - Realising you could "read people" without tarot - "Yeh - this is a load of rubbish" - "Firmly atheist". The incoherence of "god". "If it's timeless it doesn't exist anywhen, if it's spaceless it doesn't exist anywhere" - "Every answer... has come down firmly not on the side of the supernatural" - "In a world where we have a billion HD cameras... why do we only see blurry photographs [of ghosts]?" - Hume's scepticism - The Kalam Cosmological Argument "doesn't get you back to god... it could have been a farting space pixie!" - "People assume emotions mean 'irrational'" - Science is driven by excitement, wonder, passion & curiosity - "The idea that science is people in lab coats with no feelings is completely wrong" - "Emotion is a driver & part of decision-making" - "The Stoics didn't suppress their emotions, they used them!" 19:10 What (& Who) Matters? - Ethics comes from us being an evolved group animal. "If we all went around stabbing each other we wouldn't be here" - The Golden Rule - Secular Humanism - Well-being for humans & beyond - "I have a real problem with 'everyone must be happy!'" - Negative emotions (e.g. appropriate fear) can help wellbeing - Good/bad forms of hate & love - The harm of "toxic happiness." It's OK to feel down ...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.

Steve (stevesapontzis.com) is professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University, East Bay. He specialises in animal ethics, environmental ethics & meta-ethics. He was co-founder in 1985 of Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics & served as its initial co-editor. Steve was a member of the board of the American Philosophical Quarterly. In 1983, Steve founded, with his wife Jeanne, the Hayward Friends of Animals Humane Society. They now operate Second Chance, Helping the Pets of People in Need, in California. Steve wrote the books "Morals, Reason & Animals" & "Subjective Morals" & edited Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat. I'm afraid the audio is patchy - I should have organised a better mic for Steve - sorry! If you struggle to follow our conversation on the podcast, please find episode 97 here on the Sentientism YouTube channel where I've edited a complete transcript as subtitles. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there! I'll post that transcript on Sentientism.info too for those who would prefer just to read. 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 Steve's Intro - Growing up in Salt Lake City to French/Greek parents - Greek Orthodox & Methodist Christian - Order of the Cross (vegetarian) - Going vegetarian as a teenager - Philosophy at Rice University, Texas - Louis Mackey & Kierkegaard - University of Paris & existentialism & Merleau Ponty - PhD at Yale - Cal State - Retirement - Hayward Friends of Animals & Second Chance charities - Singer's Animal Liberation "The only philosophy book with a cookbook at the end" - Teaching animal ethics, ethical theory, environmental ethics 9:19 What's Real? - Going through the motions at church - "I didn't really believe in god it was not something that appealed to me whatever." - "There's so much suffering in the world." - The limits of science in understanding reality "I think the meaning of a poem is something that's real" - "Reality is very complicated and things are real in I think a wide variety of ways" 15:47 What (& Who) Matters? - Writing "Subjective Morals" - "morals are created by human beings" - The self-centred and the other-social - "morals develop in order to reinforce the strength of our other social motivations" - "there's no limitation to empathy" ...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.

Coral is an aspiring writer, an animal rescue volunteer/donor & runs a bunny boarding & grooming business. She is an ex-Mormon atheist & a "meat & potatoes girl" turned vegan. Find Coral & her content at: @atheist_vegan, & wattpad.com/user/VCoralSandsV & inkitt.com/veganatheist & on YouTube. 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 & why Sentientism is important 02:39 "Vegan Atheist Coral"'s Intro - A Mormon, military family - Joining the Coastguard - From "A meat & potatoes girl" to vegan & animal rescue - From religious to "spiritual" to agnostic/atheist - #JoinTheConversation & Street Epistemology - Stories with morals. Star Trek 11:55 What's Real? - Growing up Mormon (yet another "one true church") - "It encompasses every bit of your life" - 4 hours in church then 2 more in "school" every Sunday - "Most of my childhood I felt like I was in church" - Strong emphasis on family, but "very good at shunning" if you don't believe - Internal self-pressure: "You're constantly measuring yourself against what you think Jesus would want you to do" - Joseph Smith & the golden plates - The old & new Bible testaments superceded by The Book of Mormon - The trinity, creationism, proselytising - Fundamentalist & progressive Mormons - Managing the public perception of Mormonism (e.g. modesty dress codes) - Sending children on missions. Isolating from families & friends to reinforce church teachings - "The other people you're on the mission with are almost snitches" - Church sees friends & even own parents as potential threats - Pressured to speak to elders about doubts "testimony" as long as they're resolved in favour of the church - Moving from the west coast to Alabama. Culture shock - Growing up with a naievety about race & racism - The shock of a new school "We pray here" - "I go to the one true church & they're all wrong" - Parents drifting away from the church due to accusations about a minister - Studying other religions... "there has to be an ultimate truth" - Some family are still Mormon - Asking "what do we know & how do we know?", exploring philosophy (brain in a vat, The Matrix), re-evaluating "the god question" ...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.