Sentientism

This episode is a bonus cross-post from the Pineal Podcast (https://www.pinealpodcast.com/) where I talked to Josh Smith (https://twitter.com/Pinealpodcast) about Sentientism. We cover some of my personal perspectives too - so as ever, other Sentientists will disagree. In his own words, Josh created the Pineal podcast to help awaken his spirit. He talks to people about their own journeys to explore the ways they think, how they acquired their views on life and seek to discover areas where commonality can be found. His conversations touch on nature and climate change; our agricultural system and veganism; individual activism and systems change; public education and population control; drug policy; prison reforms; the use of psychedelics; addiction, health and wellness; gratitude, mediation and yoga; music, travel and community; and morality and religion. If those topics sound interesting, why not subscribe to the Pineal Podcast! Sentientism: sentientism.info Sentientism Facebook 🍎https://apple.co/391khQO 👂https://pod.link/1540408008 📺https://www.youtube.com/c/Sentientism

Luke (lukeroelofs.com & Majestic Equality) is a philosopher of mind at the Centre for Mind, Brain & Consciousness at New York University. Although Luke works primarily on philosophy of mind & metaphysics, their areas of interest include ethics, social & political philosophy, early modern philosophy and philosophy of gender & sexuality. Their book, "Reason, Empathy, and the Minds of Others" is under contract with Oxford University Press. 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." As well as the video above the audio is on our Podcast here on Apple and here on the other platforms. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 1:32 Luke's Intro - Philosophy of Mind Linking epistemology (how can we know) and ethics Empathy Consciousness as "the state that we're in whenever we're aware of anything… and any possible variation… of states like that" 3:41 What's Real? Growing up fairly non-religious, but not anti-religious Talking to "modern" Christians who focused on "the spirit of Jesus' ethos" Seeking out more forthright religious perspectives Being a fairly convinced atheist since 14 yrs "There's very little evidential weight in the specific claims of religious revelation" The idea the universe was contrived by a benevolent being… doesn't seem supported by the very morally mixed character of existence "The great majority of existence is neither good nor bad - it's just dust in space" Mysterious ways & ineffability Theodicies as reminiscent of the excuses humans make for abuse The "Just World" bias leads us to make excuses for suffering Faith as belief without evidence or faith as trust in & loyalty to your group 14:00 What (and Who) Matters? Going vegan at 13-14 to spite an annoying person who pointed out the logical inconsistency of being vegetarian "Fine… just to spite you I'm going to be vegan" ... and much more. Full show notes on Sentientism.info. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info. Join Luke on our "I'm a Sentientist" wall using this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us! Thanks Graham for the post-production.

Andy Norman (https://andynorman.org/ & https://twitter.com/DrAndyNo), PhD is the author of "Mental Immunity". His work has appeared in Scientific American, Psychology Today, Skeptic, Free Inquiry & The Humanist. He has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, public radio, The BBC & The Young Turks. He champions the emerging science of mental immunity as the antidote to bad ideas, disinformation, propaganda, hate & division. Andy directs the Humanism Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University & is the founder of CIRCE, the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative.  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 the Sentientism YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome - Has philosophy neglected the most important questions? 2:02 Andy's Intro - "Mental Immunity" - Philosophy & critical thinking - Boosting the mind's immune system. Helping minds filter out bad ideas - Cognitive Immunology - the science of mental immune health - Combatting epidemics of nonsense 3:30 What's Real? - Raised w/out religious affiliation. Quaker meetings - "Most Quakers are pretty chill with a naturalistic view of the world" - "Supernatural believing is unaccountable believing" - "Nature can hold us accountable" - If our beliefs aren't held accountable they drift away from reality & from the beliefs of each other - Non-reality belief is spreading & causing social dislocation - Do rights exist or are they just a useful construct? - Being shy/sad at school & being told "just smile" as "spiritual" advice. "People just started smiling back" - The ancient roots of naturalism in philosophy - Supernaturalism, the dark ages & Enlightenment - "The germ theory of disease probably would have been discovered centuries earlier were it not for religious orthodoxy" - Hobbes, Locke & Mill - "Human welfare improved dramatically in the wake of the Enlightenment" - Pre-enlightenment roots of naturalism & sentiocentrism. Al Ma'arri. - Arab cultures preserved naturalism during the dark ages - Naturalism before humans & in other animals? - Naturalism is adaptive to the degree that it enables survival/reproduction - How correlated are the accuracy & usefulness of a belief? - The power of social norms, tribalism & belonging re: bad beliefs - Performative preference falsification & prevalence of latent/suppressed atheism even w/in religious communities - Dennett: Many believe it's good to believe in god rather than actually believing in god - "Reality-based worldviews are destined to win out in the long run... because they better serve humanity... caring about other tribes as well" ... and much more. See Sentientism.info and YouTube for full show notes. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/​​​​​​​​​​​​​. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist​. ​Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism​. Thanks for the post-production, Graham.

Sabine is legal advisor to the World Federation for Animals (https://wfa.org/). In 2014, she cofounded the Global Animal Law (GAL https://www.globalanimallaw.org/) Association and led work on the creation and update of the first complete Animal Welfare Legislation Database. 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 https://youtu.be/OovrrbG1Crk. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 1:24 Sabine's Intro - Animal Law & International Governance for Animals - Founding GAL, building the AWL Database, developing a 100 strong global animal law community -  The UNCAHP (United Nations Convention on Animal Health & Protection) https://www.uncahp.org/ - #OneHealth & #OneWelfare - Working with the new World Federation for Animals to make animal protection a UN imperative 3:57 What's Real? - Learning about the beauty & value of the natural world from Sabine's grandmother - "I believe in what I can see but also in things I can't see that are obvious" - Looking into the eyes of a cat & sensing it's "soul" - Attending Catholic classes, but always preferring a more holistic, non-religious worldview - Finding Catholicism restrictive, seeing the downsides of religion, deciding not to attend communion - "We feel this notion of respect for all beings" - Respecting all life is common to most religions - Solidarity & compassion - The commonalities between religious/naturalistic worldviews. "Souls" vs. sentience. Energy & information processing. Universal connectedness. - "When I say 'soul' I mean that the being I see has a consciousness" 15:34 What Matters Morally? - A mother who was a nurse, motivated by human compassion - Developing a similar sensitivity for animal suffering from a young age - A close relationship with a German Shepherd dog - Being brought to a bull-fighting event in France at 4 years old. Seeing an animal being tortured to death - "feeling ashamed of my own species". "I wanted to intervene." Adults told me it wasn't real - then I saw the butchery behind the arena - "These animals needed some people to defend them" - "I felt it was my moral duty" - The challenges of going vegan in France - Facing health concerns from parents - At 18, asking a doctor how to go veg*an and being told "it's not possible to be healthy" - Moving to Canada. Finding it much easier there to go vegetarian then vegan. Avoiding zoos & animal tested products - Social context can make change hard or easy. ... And much more. Full show notes on Sentientism.info or YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks Graham for the post-prod.

Aditya is the wild animal suffering outreach coordinator for Animal Ethics in India. He works in grass-roots animal activism with a variety of organisations. He is studying Animal Protection Law at the National Legal Studies Research Institute 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: 0:00 Welcome 1:22 Aditya's Intro - Animal Advocacy in India 2:10 What's Real? From Hinduism to naturalism - Growing up Hindu and vegetarian - Vedanta. Dualistic theism. Dharma - Exploring other forms of spirituality after getting into animal advocacy - Veganism clashed with the culture (e.g. dairy) - Buddhism - Jiddu Krishnamurti, embracing naturalism and rationalism. 5:00 What Matters Morally? - The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would want to be treated - Learning about sentience, suffering & harm - "I used to just consider humans... but when I adopted a dog (Gini!) my whole worldview shifted" - Ahimsa as a theme in many worldviews, but most vegetarians in India don't have a strong connection with farmed animal suffering - Sentience as central - the capacity to feel pain or pleasure - Singer's Animal Liberation - Sharing a stress reaction with Gini to fireworks - "When you realise that all you've been taught through your life is wrong" - Speciesism & arbitrary discrimination - Going vegan. Practically easy but some social challenges - Bio, ecocentrism, holism - Nature as sacred in some traditions - "We need to focus on sentient beings not abstract entities" - "Who is being harmed?" - Don't harm sentient beings to protect non-sentient things - A lack of relationship doesn't justify moral exclusion - Even simpler sentients might suffer just as much - It's not just avoiding harming, its an obligation to help - It doesn't matter whether the cause of harm is human or not  19:00 Wild animal suffering - We need to correct the belief that "if humans leave nature alone nature will be perfect". Nature is not idyllic - High offspring r-strategies drive massive suffering & death 26:15 The Future - dystopias & utopias - The risk of creating new dystopias (e.g. insect farming, colonising other planets with more farmed/wild sentient suffering, artificial sentients) - Ending speciesism & granting moral consideration to all sentients - Technology is a double-edged sword - We need moral as well as tech innovation - Fixing current problems & avoiding creating new ones 30:26 Which entities are sentient? - Sentience as a biologically evolved class of information processing - Updating our assessment of sentience using science - Is centralisation of structures required? ...and much more. Full show notes on YouTube and Sentientism.info. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall using this form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one here on FB. Thanks Graham for the post-prod.

Jenny (@jennysplitter and jennysplitter.com) is an award-winning journalist & science writer covering food, agriculture, climate change, biodiversity, health & technology. Her work has been published across a wide range of media outlets including Vox, Forbes, Observer, The Washington Post, Popular Mechanics and New York Magazine. Jenny is a co-founder & contributing editor to the science communication project SciMoms. She is also a podcast host on the Animal Studies channel of the New Books Network & her newsletter, FutureFeed, chronicles change in the food system. 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: 0:00 Welcome 1:05 Jenny's Intro - journalism and SciMoms - The Science Moms film  2:09 What's Real? - Growing up in California as reform Jewish - Reform Judaism: "It's definitely not heavy handed with the God stuff" - Most of the parents were atheist and agnostic. It's mostly about the ritual and the tradition and the history - Jewish philosophy re: responsibility, community obligations & making the world better - It's less about the rules than the discussion - Moving from a naive view of a caring god to "at some point I just didn't really worry about it any more" 7:58 What Matters Morally? - Complexity in reform Judaism moral discussions at Hebrew school - "Closer vs. further away from God" - "Of course I'm angry - I've just been told by my friend I'm going to hell" - SkepChick & other atheist communities - "Do no harm", community, avoiding bad people, getting into the complex stuff - COVID & re-thinking communities - The evolution of morality, good & bad - Moral scope & consideration - Writing about the climate impacts of meat & going reducetarian, then just stopping eating meat - Enjoying substituting out animal products in cooking - Not wanting to do the big philosophical debate but changing behaviour anyway - Morality then behaviour or behaviour then morality? - Philosophical arguments vs. "real people" conversations - Emotion, stories & logic - Mollusc/invertebrate sentience? - Assessing the suffering of farmed animals & fish - Garrett Broad @ Fordham & why we care about some animals & not others - "My cat is a vicious murderer" - We don't have to understand non-human animal sentience perfectly to be confident they can suffer - Bio/ecocentrism, conservation and environmentalism. "We have to be thinking about ecosystems" - Ecosystem services - "Perilous bounty" by Tom Philpott - #JustTransition for industrialised & indigenous cultures ...and much more. Full notes on Sentientism.info and YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one is here on Facebook. Thanks Graham for the post-prod.

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.  Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Jacy (https://twitter.com/jacyanthis & https://jacyanthis.com/) is a social scientist & co-founder of the Sentience Institute (https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/). His acclaimed book, The End of Animal Farming  (https://jacyanthis.com/book), analyzes the development & popularisation of food technologies such as plant-based & cultivated meat. 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: 0:00 Welcome 1:26 Jacy's Intro Utilitarianism, Effective Altruism, Buddhism, neuroscience, community building, Animal Charity Evaluators, Sentience Institute, The End of Animal Farming, Sociology PhD & moral expansion. 3:22 What's Real? - Growing up around Baptist & Catholic churches near Houston but in an agnostic family - Attending church "lockins" - "I wasn't even told Santa was real growing up" - Interested in Buddhist views of suffering, but not the supernatural aspects - Naturalism has a connotation that there is nothing supernatural. "That's an empirical claim about which I remain uncertain" - Would multiverses, our universe being a simulation or pre-Big Bang history be seen as "supernatural"? - The varieties of religious identity: metaphysics, ethics, community 9:20 What Matters? - Moral heuristics & their conflicts - Adopting utilitarianism at 12 yrs old & looking for a "proof" - From moral realism to anti-realism (per Brian Tomasik) - It's up to us to decide which mental phenomenon to put in the "sentience" and "consciousness" categories - Objectivity, relativism, nihilism & arbitrariness - Even most religious people would act morally if there was no god - Rejecting "mind-independent" truth as the next step up from rejecting supernatural truths - Non-objective morality can still be compelling - Grounding morality in a concern for the experiences of others - The priority balance between reducing suffering vs. enhancing flourishing 18:20 Moral Scope & Expansion - Utilitarianism led to vegetarianism then veganism - Focusing initially on human issues, working at GiveWell - Cause prioritisation led back to non-human issues - Persuading sentiocentrists to be more effective & effective altruists to be sentiocentric - The bias against helping other species -  Non-human animal causes can seem sentimental until you engage w/the arguments - Far future/long-termism - Effective Altruists have the highest veg*n % of almost any human group - Ancient roots of sentiocentrism/veganism & naturalism - "Everything has been said before" ... And much more - see Sentientism.info for full show notes. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks Graham for the post-prod https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.

Frans (fransdewaal.com) is a primatologist & ethologist. He is Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University, director of the Living Links Center at Emory & the author of many books including "Chimpanzee Politics", "Our Inner Ape" & "The Bonobo & the Atheist". He has featured in TV/radio productions & TED talks viewed by tens of millions of people. His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, & food-sharing. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences & the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences. 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: 0:00 Welcome 1:19 Frans' Intro - Understanding animals - Ethology, primates, animal behaviour, intelligence & morality - Breaking out of behaviourism. "We have so much evidence for animal intelligence... these taboos are being broken" - The ripple effect. Finding remarkable capabilities in primates, then in many other species 4:05 What's Real? From Catholic to apathist - Growing up Catholic & dropping religion at 17 - "My parents were very unhappy but I was part of a generation where everyone was doing that" - Apathism... "I don't particularly care if god exists" - "In Catholicism & every religion there's a lot of hypocrisy... people who talk one way & act another" - Child abuse scandals & cover-ups - "Jesus was an inspiring figure... whether he's a real historical figure or not" - Half of people in the Netherlands call themselves atheists & we see that coming to the USA 8:48 What Matters Morally? - Religious & evolutionary & intuition as drivers of morality - Religions can provide narratives to support your moral intuitions (e.g. the good samaritan) - "You cannot go wrong with compassion, morally" - Studying empathy in non-human animals - You can't build a moral system without empathy - Reasoning & logic, without compassion, can lead to awful harm - "Empathy & compassion are not human inventions" - Very young human children & dogs both show compassion to a crying person (Carolyn Zahn-Waxler) - We find compassion in many non-human animals & that is the basis for human morality too - The ability to detect sentience in others & to feel affected by it. Roots in maternal care (hence empathy more developed in females)? Oxytocin - "If you have a co-operative animal society you need to worry about your fellows" ... 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 using this simple form. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Thanks @cgbessellieu for the post-production.

Kyle (https://twitter.com/KyleJohannsen2 and https://philpeople.org/profiles/kyle-johannsen) is Adjunct Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Queen's University. His research is in social & political philosophy, & in animal & env. ethics. He teaches normative ethics, metaethics, bioethics, business ethics, cyberethics, the philosophy of law & critical thinking. He is the author of "Wild Animal Ethics". 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: 0:00 Welcome 1:22 Kyle's Intro - Catia Faria's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catia_Faria) dissertation on wild animal suffering 2:25 What's Real? - Growing up Roman Catholic. Attending catholic schools. Believing in god. - "I didn't like being Catholic. I found it very restrictive... I didn't like having to pray - it felt fruitless" - Ethics was being thought about but "I didn't like the conservative values" e.g. abortion, contraception, sex - "It just struck me as false." - Catholicism did leave the impression that it's important to think about morality - Majoring in philosophy 8:25 What Matters? - "Morality is objective" - "Even relativists behave like morality is objective... why would you argue unless there were some right answer?" - Even under objective morality duties vary by context - Moral objectivism doesn't have to imply moral realism - Consistency, coherence, flourishing, co-op as potential groundings - Goods (welfare, resources, health, relationships), functions (distribution, efficiency, increases) & constraints (respect) values - "I don't know if pleasure always wins out" - Pluralism within Sentientism 21:15 Moral Scope? Sentience - Anthropocentrism, Sentiocentrism, Biocentrism, Ecocentrism - Sentientism as Sentiocentrism & Naturalism - Sentiocentrism itself implies naturalism. It conflicts with many supernatural/religious worldviews (e.g. soul as basis for moral value, use of science to assess sentience) - Hard cases of marginal sentience (brain injury, foetal development, simplest animals) 28:27 The Journey to Sentientism - Taking a PhD animal ethics course taught by Will Kymlicka based on Zoopolis - Concluding that "Sentience is the correct criterion for inclusion in the moral community" - Pluralism re: various goods. But sentience is a condition for the non-welfare elements to count as good (e.g. health only matters if the being cares about being healthy) - "Veganism is a moral requirement if sentiocentrism is right" - Going vegan during the PhD. Cutting out animal products over 8 month transition. Finding social support - And much more. See YouTube or Sentientism.info Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/ Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ Join me and Kyle in our biggest community group - open to all: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism