47: “Freedom, equality & avoiding harm to others” – Kristof Dhont – Social Psychologist – Sentientist Conversations

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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Kristof is a social psychologist and senior lecturer at the university of Kent where he runs SHARKLab (Study of Human InterGroup & Animal Relations). He is the author of “Why We Love and Exploit Animals”.

We discuss:

– The psychology of human-animal relations

– Links between sexism, racism & speciesism

– “Us humans are weird”. We’re not fully rational decision makers

– Being sceptical of our own rationality

– Knowing the right answer isn’t the same as persuading others to agree or make changes

– Growing up in Belgium, a largely Catholic country but with many who are non-practicing

– Attending church, then becoming “strongly atheist” because of evidence, but also “the nasty stuff” (sexism, homophobia, racism)

– Being raised with values of compassion & respect. Finding those values in Christianity, other religions and in Humanism

– Moving to a more nuanced view of the good and bad in religion

– Traditions and rituals have value for some people. As long as they don’t cause harm to people outside or within the group

– The abuse of power in institutionalised religion

– Pre-human proto-morality

– We don’t need supernatural beliefs to justify compassionate ethics. We just need them too justify harmful ethics

– Religious schooling

– Being angry with the world as a teenager: religion; capitalism; animal products; injustice – then being led to study human behaviour

– Taking teenage rebellion and applying it to social justice activism in academia

– Moral intuitions re: “freedom, equality and avoiding harm to others”

– Freedom & equality shouldn’t just be left wing concerns. They’re much more widely shared

– Sentience matters re: moral consideration, not intelligence

– Are freedom and equality fundamental or important because of how they impact suffering/flourishing?

– Caring about animals. Having companion animals as family members

– The Meat Paradox

– Seeing a family member killing chickens and rabbits

– The hardcore punk music scene & Straight Edge. Bands with a clear, constructive message re: politics & animal ethics & anti-fascism (vs. more pessimistic grunge and 1970’s punk)

– “I can’t keep eating meat any more”, supported by the positive social pressure of the music scene & friends making the change

– Parents initially resisting veg*nism, needing to learn DIY (it’s easier now!)

– Learning about dairy/eggs & going vegan at University

– Wild animal suffering and how to prioritise it vs. animal farming/fishing. The risk of paternalism/hubris

– Effective Altruism

– Benevolent & hostile sexism

– Sentientism’s focus on inclusive moral consideration

– The challenges of rescue and sanctuary animals and predator companion animals

– The default human answer of “kill them all” re: issues with wild animals

– Animals don’t care what category we put them in. They suffer just the same

– And much more… (full notes at https://sentientism.info/)

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/​. Join our “wall” https://sentientism.info/wall/ ​ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.

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Thanks, Graham for the post-prod: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.