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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Mariann (@marisul) is Co-host with previous guest Jasmin Singer of the Our Hen House podcast and host of the Animal Law Podcast. She is a lawyer, lecturer, teacher and animal rights activist.
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
1:40 Mariann’s Intro. An Animal life
– Working as a lawyer in New York
– Adopting a dog on impulse then waking up to animal issue
– “He’d stopped eating meat because of the way animals were treated – and t was just like ‘boom!'”
– Most people know there’s a problem – they just avoid thinking about it
– Joining (later chairing) the Animal Law Committee of the NY bar
– Connecting animal advocacy organisations
– Meeting Jasmin Singer & starting Our Hen House
6:02 What’s Real?
– Growing up Catholic
– “I had faith but it was never a burden for me”
– Not really being religious any more… “but those voices never really go away”
– As a teenager “It just started to seem unlikely”
– Getting comfortable with “I don’t know”
– Ethics & evidence as reasons for abandoning supernatural worldviews
– The tumult of Catholic college in 1968. From dressing for dinner & attending church to “men with beards living in the dorms”
– “Boom – the entire world changed – everyone was questioning everything”
– Leaning towards atheism but not being certain
– “We’re connected to each other in ways we don’t understand”
– Non-sentient living things
– Woo! vs. naturalistic views of sentience & consciousness
– Finding awe in a naturalistic worldview
18:01 What Matters?
– “It’s all about suffering”… and about pleasure too
– Suffering matters… “It’s so obvious”
– “What kind of god – would create this planet – where animals eat each other”
– Morality as compliance vs. concern for suffering/flourishing
– Reading Peter Singer. He wrote down what many were already feeling
– “Why did I get there and everybody doesn’t get there?”
– “I don’t think it’s a philosophical problem… it’s a psychological problem”
– “How can you not sound self-righteous when you’re right?”
– “I don’t understand why this is this big moral journey”
– The “all we have to do is tell everybody” stage of activism
– The family & social challenges of going vegan
– The risks of motivated reasoning even within a naturalistic worldview
28:48 The Future
– Balancing despair & hope with the help of Our Hen House
– Things have shifted. “It’s almost as if we have won the moral argument already.”
… and much more. Full notes on YouTube or 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, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on Facebook.
Thanks Graham for the post-production.
Aditya (https://www.soytheist.com/ & https://www.youtube.com/c/Soytheist) is an animal rights advocate from Assam in India. His @Soytheist YouTube channel focuses on taking a straightforward & rational approach to animal rights, identity politics & occasionally religion & atheism. In Sentientist Conversations we talk …continue
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Raffael Fasel is University Assistant Professor in Public Law at the Cambridge Law Faculty and Fellow of Jesus College. He specialises in public law, with a particular interest in constitutional theory, human rights law, and animal rights law. Raffael is …continue
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Isabella La Rocca Gonzalez is an artist, writer, photographer, teacher and activist. She describes her work as “part of a long tradition in art and photography: to bring to light and find beauty in the hidden, unconscious, or disregarded. As …continue
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