49: “I’m concerned with oppression in all its forms” – philosopher Joey Tuminello of Farm Forward, the Better Food Foundation and McNeese University – Sentientist Conversation

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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Joey (https://josephtuminello.academia.edu/) is asst. professor of philosophy at McNeese State Uni & program coordinator for the nonprofits Farm Forward & Better Food Foundation (See also Default Veg). His research covers philosophies of food, medicine, animals & environment. He teaches biomedical ethics & sections of ethical theory & existentialism.

In these 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 here on YouTube (subscribe there too!).

We discuss (full show notes are on YouTube and Sentientism.info):

– Growing up in a Catholic household in Louisiana

– “Who’s your mama, are you Catholic & can you make a roux?”

– Questioning religion early on. Developing scepticism. Understanding mechanisms of control in religion & beyond

– Hard-core atheist phase & studying philosophy

– Non-theism & atheism. Tempered with humility & openness

– “Open-mindedness & scepticism go hand in hand”

– Deciding not to get confirmed

– Attending Catholic high school that didn’t welcome questioning & experiencing social adversity

– Social justice & hateful interpretations of some religions (e.g. Westboro Baptist Church)

– Using religious arguments to justify discriminations

– Analytic philosophy & challenging religious inconsistencies

– “Ambiguity & tension is part of the human experience”

– Humility & open-mindedness needs to be at the core of naturalism

– The arrogance in “angry atheism”

– Getting comfortable not knowing. With-holding belief until there’s evidence

– Meta-physics & ethics

– “We don’t have access to the ultimate nature of reality” but there are still things we can meaningfully say about reality

– Experiences are happening. Phenomenology, directed consciousness & the self/non-self

– Nagel’s “What is it like to be a bat?”

– Consciousness, interests that matter and ethics (caring about the interests of others)

– Lacking a justification for the exploitation or oppression of others, human or not

– The “Embrace The Void” podcast with Joey’s friend Aaron

– Pre-human morality

– Is the choice to be moral simply the choice to care about the perspectives of others

– Moral inter-subjectivism. There are moral truths independent of each mind but they do require an interface between subjects

– Sentient beings do matter morally, but is sentience the only thing that matters? Is cutting down a tree wrong if it has no impact on sentients?

– The risk of anthropocentrism, because humans are defining & assessing sentience. But sentience existed long before & far beyond humans

– And much more… see YouTube.

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.

Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Main one is here on FaceBook.

Thanks to Graham.