Sentientism Jamie Woodhouse

Peter Singer is often referred to as the “world’s most influential living philosopher.” He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secular, naturalistic, utilitarian perspective. He wrote the books "Animal Liberation", Why Vegan? and "Animal Liberation Now!" (launched on the same day as this episode! - speaking tour here), in which he argues against speciesism and for a shift to plant-based food systems and veganism. He also wrote the essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" and the books "The Life You Can Save" & "The Most Good You Can Do" which argue for effective altruism - using evidence & reasoning to do the most good we can for all sentient beings both human and not. In 2004 Peter was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. In 2005, the Sydney Morning Herald placed him among Australia's ten most influential public intellectuals. Singer is a cofounder of Animals Australia & the founder of The Life You Can Save.In 2021 he received the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. Peter donated the $1 million prize money to the most effective organizations working to assist people in extreme poverty and to reduce the suffering of animals in factory farms.

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

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

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

- Animal Liberation Now! - why now?

- Sentientism's links to ancient naturalistic, sentiocentric themes of thought & Peter's work

- Sentientism's 1) naturalism, 2) sentiocentrism & ethical pluralism, 3) implications of not needlessly harming or killing

- "What needlessly killing amounts to... is a question... that could have a lot of discussion"

- "In terms of what really matters in itself I agree that Sentientism is the right view"

- The challenges of the words speciesism & sentientism - too many syllables!

- Peter's entry on our "I'm a Sentientist" wall

06:12 What's Real?

- Non-religious Jewish parents "they came to Australia as refugees from the Nazis, leaving Austria"

- Mother "a fervent agnostic... there isn't reason to believe in a god or a supernatural being or life after death"

- "In some parts of the United States it's almost necessary to belong to a religion to have a community"

- Rabbi cousin in Mobile, Alabama "When I say god I mean whatever it is in the universe that is a force for good... (e.g. some human beings)"

- "I kind of thought of them as fairy stories"

- Childhood meeting with Catholic kids "don't ask him any more questions - he'll only blacken his soul & go to hell... I wasn't in the least frightened"

- Negative aspects of religions: Religious wars & "very often a conservative force against what I see as progressive reforms"

- "If there were no religious teachings against #abortion I don't think the US would be divided over the issue"

- Why religious organisations get social licence to continue #sexism , #homophobia , #transphobia

- "[Religious] teachings about sex which have been a very negative influence... making people feel guilty"

- Previous guest Lisa Kemmerer



26:25 What Matters?

38:58 Who Matters?

01:10:05 How Can We Make A Better Future?



...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!

Michael is head of philosophy at the University of Liverpool. His current work spans transhumanism, death & meaning. He has written a vast range of topics, including on whether non-human animals can have meaningful lives & "What It Is Like to Be a Bot". He says of his work: "As a philosopher, I am a generalist, which is a nice way of saying that I have done many different things & I am not really an expert on anything in particular."

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

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

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:42 Michael's Intro

- What it means to be human, to live a good life, a meaningful life

- Transhumanism & human enhancement

- Meaning & life & death

- When dealing with foundational, broad questions: "It is very difficult to be precise... I hardly ever feel that 'now I've got it'"

06:06 What's Real?

- "It's much easier to point at something & disuss whether that is real"

- "If you can name something then in some sense it must be real"

- Raised #Christian & sent to Sunday school & Bible classes & regular confessions to the village priest

- "I sort of believed there was a god when I was little"

- A god watching me "a means of controlling me... Big Brother in heaven... it was just oppressive... a punishing god, a critical god"

- "I didn't feel the presence... I just believed that there was something because I was told there was something"

- "Very quickly I dropped my religious beliefs... as soon as I started to think for myself I became an #atheist"

- "It just faded away... it was always superficial"

- "Some people take me for a Christian because I share some of the intuitions religious believers have"

- "I'm not entirely comfortable with calling myself a naturalist although I don't believe in anything supernatural"

- "Naturalism is also very programmatic & ideological"

- "There are a lot of things in this world that we cannot understand...& some naturalists are very confident that we can understand everything & that's there's no mystery... there is a lot of mystery."

- Max More's #transhumanism ... pits science vs. religion

- Origins of the universe & life & consciousness "we don't know!" Science might figure it out - it might not

- "... whatever there is is part of nature"

- Over-confidence vs. humility

- The subjective & the objective

- Plato & Parmenides: "being is more real than becoming"... "but we live in a world of becoming... how can that be less real?"

- The "normative use of reality"... to "declare something else as not real... a term to deny something else its reality"

- The denial of animal suffering "not so common any more" & the #cartesian model

- "If you see an animal in pain you know it is in pain... it takes a lot of willful blindness not to acknowledge..."
- "One of the reasons... why animals could not possibly feel any pain... because it would then be far too horrible how we treat animals... god wouldn't allow it!"

- "If we assume the world is good & we see all the apparent suffering... then it cannot be... A moral reason behind denying the suffering of animals"

- JW "An echo of a religious mode of thought that's then re-built in a humanist mode of thought"

- "If we have evolved naturally... there's no reason to assume our brains are capable of understanding the universe... what possible use can it have?"

- "A naturalistic perspective should actually teach us humility"

29:03 What Matters?


...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,

Elan is a cultural anthropologist focusing on human-animal interactions, environmental justice, and food politics. He is assistant professor of the practice in environmental studies and coordinator of the animal studies minor at Wesleyan University. He is the author of the Gregory Bateson Prize winning book: "Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care". He also contributed a chapter called "The Empty Promises of Cultured Meat" to the book "The Good it Promises, the Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism".

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

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

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:25 Elan's Intro

- Cultural anthropology and teaching animal studies "my favourite thing to teach!"

- Appearing on Knowing Animals & Our Hen House

- Working with Kathryn Gillespie

02:42 What's Real?

- Raised mostly #secular

- Dad believed in #reincarnation

- At 12yrs old becoming aware of major religions & thinking "probably none of them are right"

- "Materialist with a small 'm', empiricist with a small 'e'"

- "Probably when we die, we die... that just makes our lives more poignant & important"

- Being given a bible stories book by a #jehovahswitness "this god person is really cruel... like a villain"

- "Reassuring in a humbling kind of way... I'm a tiny part of this vast universe... we're no less important for that"

- "Mildly #agnostic... I know that I don't know"

- Not spiritual but "a certain sense of wonder"

- An #ayahuasca retreat. Most others talked of "spiritual" experiences. "I felt pretty in touch with the particles of the universe... I don't have any anthropomorphic encounters to explain I just felt deeply in touch with creation and appreciative that I'm a part of it... that went down like a lead balloon."

- Ego dissolution... "the seed of #sentience ... that I share... with other animals"

17:00 What Matters?

- #comics : "#spiderman was my favourite super-hero... with great power comes great responsibility" (vs. #judgedredd and "law and order" :) )

- "We have an obligation to help each other when we can"

- Fairness: "Some people's extra benefit isn't really worth anybody else's suffering"

- "I don't have a #utilitarianism perspective of maximising pleasure... but for each individual who experiences the world they deserve to have minimal suffering & maximal enjoyment of life"

- Understanding bad actions that may be a response to trauma or desperation - not bad ethics

- "An openness to understanding what might be motivating people even in conflicts"

- Neil Levy: "Why bad beliefs happen to good people"

- Peter Singer

- Ethical pluralism: #care/#virtue/#deontological/relational ethics as long as all sentient beings get to count "that's exactly right"

- #elonmusk & the ethics of self-driving cars "it's deeply flawed if you can take individual lives & throw them away without their consent because you think it will actually benefit more people in the long run"

- #consequentialism

- Risks of utilitarianism: aggregating, offsetting, replacement, maximisation, ends justifying means, epistemic / ethical uncertainty & risk

26:21 Who Matters?

- Beyond #anthropocentrism

- Growing up "having relationships with members of other species"

49:43 How To Make a Better Future?



...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!

Ashley is Director of Outreach for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). She has led a broad range of PETA’s campaigns and has been interviewed about her work to promote animal rights by the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and in many other publications.

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

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

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:33 Ashley Intro

- 16 years at #PETA: public campaigns, celebrities... "enjoying every minute of it"

03:18 What Matters

- #ChristianScience "there was never a divide... this is science & this is god... a lot of spirituality"

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science (see risks re: prayer vs. medicine)

- Father "a non-practising Catholic... not a religious person but was very supportive of... that part of my mother's life"

- Personal relationship with god "connect directly with this spiritual part of your life"

- More a spiritual, all-pervasive god than a "judgemental, human figure"

- Rejecting "we judge everything based on a human worldview"

- Universally accessible rather than in/out-group based

- "Not telling you what to do"

- Religious vs. scientific views of reality "It never occurred to me that those things could be incompatible"

- Spiritual rather than literal interpretation of the #bible

- "#spiritually I really still do identify with these ideas & these values"

- "Macro spiritual concepts of love... that bring us out of what's right in front of us"

- "Isn't so much of science trying to go bigger & deeper"

- Science that we don't yet understand that can sometimes be anticipated by mystical/spiritual thinking

- Ontological (what's real?) & epistemological (how should we work it out?) naturalism

- Risks of wishful thinking

- #faith vs. #naturalism "I'm the latter... the evidence"

- Is there evidence that would lead you to reject Christian Science? "it's more of a spiritual practice"

- "#spirituality ... it is a scientific pursuit... our ideas of science are too limited"

- Risks of dogma / harmful & discriminatory ethics in religious/supernatural worldviews

- "If you have an ethical question about the world you should be going back & working it out with these spiritual tools"

- Growing up in #losangeles

- One 8th grade term in a Southern #Baptist school "pamphlets in the office that told you why every other religion in the world was wrong & sinful - mine was in there"

- "You're going to hell!"

- "I was constantly being told 'be quiet, sit down, stop asking questions'... I remember the word 'obey' was used a lot"... "I didn't get it... why can't you answer these questions?"

- The #trauma caused by religious beliefs (e.g. threat of hell)

- Secularism & kids learning about multilple worldviews

41:08 What Matters?

- "My parents really laid the foundation... for my sense of ethics... each coming from their own respective backgrounds... two extremely ethical, thoughtful, kind, intelligent people."

- You don't need an old book to be a good person... universal goods

- "Goodness is something more primal than that [#divinecommandtheory]"

45:30 Who Matters?

- "I grew up in an animal loving household... unquestionably family members"

- The family dog: "She loved me and I loved her"

- "There was never any idea that these weren't individuals"

01:16:33 How Can We Make A Better Future?



...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

This episode is a bonus cross post of my conversation with Nick Pendergrast⁠⁠ and Adam Cardilini on their 3CR Freedom of
Species podcast about conspiracism, misinformation and disinformation in the vegan and animal advocacy movements and how to communicate effectively with those caught up in them. Of course, we also talk about Sentientism⁠⁠'s commitment to naturalistic epistemology via "evidence and reason".

You can subscribe to 3CR's ⁠⁠Freedom of Species wherever you listen. ⁠3CR is a community radio station based in Melbourne⁠⁠, Australia. Nick, Adam and the other co-hosts have a fascinating range of guests, conversations and also music with a message.

Both Adam and Nick have been guests on Sentientism too - have a listen to episode 106 and ⁠episode 88⁠⁠ if you'd like to hear their thoughts about what's real, who matters and how can we make a better world. You might also want to check episode 55 with Christopher Sebastian and episode 92 with Lee McIntyre as we discuss their research and writing here. Here is Christopher's Euronews piece about "What do veganism and conspiracy theories have in common?"

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!

Jay Shapiro is an award winning filmmaker, writer, & podcaster. He directed the film Islam & the Future of Tolerance, based around a post 9/11 conversation between Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz. He produces and creates a wide range of content, writes on his "What Jay Thinks" blog & hosts the Dilemma podcast - I had the pleasure of being his guest for a Dilemma hangout about Sentientism back in 2020. He loves thoughtful deep dives into philosophy, psychology, & political analysis.

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

- The Essential #samharris series

- Documentary & narrative film-making

- "I really want to understand ideas... and transmit those to an audience... even if I totally disagree with the idea"

03:16 What's Real?

- Growing up in a secular #Jewish household

- "Post-holocaust American judaism is it's own brand... a very ethical & political tribe more than a religious one"

- "Never again becomes the holiest prayer"

- Psychologist dad, guidance counsellor mum

- "I'm a boring naturalist but... I love analogies for what it feels like to exist"

- Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five "Oh... This is what I like"

- An over-active imagination as a kid... "my scientists", The Truman Show, solipsism, Philip K Dick & #scifi

- #Meditation, #psychedelics, religious experiences... "scrambles the dials"

- Donald Hoffman's "The Case Against Reality"

- How evolution shapes our construction of experiences of reality

- Psychedelics help us "catch it in the act" of reality construction

- "There's much more out there" e.g. non-human sentient experiences

- "It reminds you of the expansiveness of reality rather than show you a new one"

- The National High School Ethics Bowl

- Anil Seth's "How your brain hallucinates reality" @TED

- Annika Harris's exploration of consciousness theories re: "The Hard Question"

- "Reality is awesome enough - who needs magic" (I mis-spoke!)

- Epistemological tests?: atheism, veganism, spherical earth...

- Writing about Sam Harris, not for him

- Object-oriented ontology

- #psychology "I don't think we're the rational animal... we're the rationalising animal"

- How people respond to #cognitivedissonance (Leon Festinger) "they really don't like it"

- Criticising #consequentialism "you can justify anything... wait long enough and the consequences will work out... where do you stop the clock... too easy to find an out"

- #Virtueethics "Secular virtue" (vs. religious views of virtue)

- What happens after noticing the cognitive dissonance. More about psychology & values more than epistemology?

- Coping mechanisms. Consequentialism, capitalism, economics... give people outs to "quiet these voices in their heads"

- Neil Levy "people are more rational than you think" https://youtu.be/Tp40ga1cXEc

- Qanon, Goop products... everyone selects evidence/sources to suit themselves

- Believing unfounded things can be a "rational" response to existential crises / the discomfort of cognitive dissonance

37:45 What Matters?

- "There is no grounding (to ethics)"

- David Hume's "unbreachable" is-ought chasm

- "If you hate Sam (Harris) I think you'll like a lot of what I do there" (the Foundations of Morality episode of The Essential Sam Harris

- There is a relationship between is and ought but "It's up to us to define that relationship"

58:50 Who Matters?

01:50:49 How Can We Make A Better Future?



...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 ⁠⁠h