We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.
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Chaitanya is Assistant Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in the Centre for Regulatory Policy and Governance. He has a PhD in Economics. Chaitanya’s research interests include economic development strategies in the global south, structural change, economic development and regulatory policy, urban economics, and non-anthropocentric strategies/alternatives to anthropocentric value systems in progress and conservation including food systems research (and maybe Sentientist Economics?)
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
01:42 Chaitanya’s Intro
– Economics as a way to improve the world
03:45 What’s Real?
– Growing up in a #sindhi family in India
– #pakistan , #india & partition
– Having a #hindu temple at home
– An #atheist father “he didn’t believe in all those things” who turned to religion after a difficult time
– “I don’t believe in god”
– “Religion has always been a tool to marginalise different sections of the society”
– Rejecting faith
– Degree, masters, PhD… “questioning things… critical thinking”
– Before then, unthinkingly accepting what had been told
– “The way you think has real impact on society”
– “There are several ways of living life and one has agency”
– Evidence & reason, ethical & systemic critiques of religion
– “It’s a very hard task to grasp reality”
– “I would rather… analyse things around me as they are”
– #pluralism m
– Naturalistic views of relatedness & interconnectedness
– Finding a balance between defeatist humility & arrogant hubris
22:54 What Matters?
– Being sensitive, as a child, to humans & non-humans
– Growing up in a patriarchal society
– “Not cheating, working hard… stopping at red lights”
26:49 Who Matters?
– Sindhis typically eat meat, but father said “I always felt it was not the right thing to do”
– Buying meat from a public slaughterhouse “I did not feel comfortable but I used to love it [eating meat]”
– Family gatherings centred around #meat “everyone around me was relishing… & my father was telling me this is not the right thing to do”
– Fighting about eating meat at 4-5 years old
– Visiting the #slaughterhouse “this is where it comes from”
– #sentience & the dangers of human-defined moral scope…
…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.
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