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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Devon Docherty, Carol Jasper and Maja Cullen are psychology researchers from the University of Stirling. Carol is a lecturer, Devon is a teaching assistant and Maja is a research assistant. Devon is also a researcher, writer and animal advocate with Surge and Earthling Ed.
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.
00:00 Clips!
01:09 Welcome
03:25 Devon, Maja and Carol Introductions
– Psychology (human-animal interactions, clinical health) and animal advocacy
– Their papers on the paradoxes and dissonances of vegetarianism and pescetarianism
– Quantitative research: “science doesn’t have to be about numbers… if we want to understand people… we need to do that with words… listen to their experiences… their own narratives… we all have positionality.”
– “Science teaching so often is based entirely in pseudo-objectivity… subjectivity can be really powerful.”
06:53 What’s Real?
Carol:
– Growing up in a #presbyterian family. Attending Sunday
school. Exploring celtic / pagan mythology and spirituality.
– Reading the Bible “a really beautiful book… but how
can the old testament… be real?” Dad’s response: “a way that people used to understand the world around them… in the absense of other explanations”
– Now constructing narratives in a scientific domain
– Belief in the supernatural? “I’d be really hesitant
to say that we have all the answers… consciousness… I want to believe that there’s a ghost in the machine although I know there isn’t”
– Celtic confluence of the ephemeral and the tangible
“intertwined together… I very much believe in the concrete real but also I like to think there’s things we don’t know and we don’t understand yet… we should always be trying to find out more.”
– “Maybe it’s just… physical energy… but I like to think there’s something beyond us… hope there’s some other… maybe there’s some hope that they could come and help us get everything right.”
Devon:
– “It’s really complex being a human sometimes.”
– #catholic family and school “very strict catholic teaching”
– “Religion never really resonated with me”
– “The teacher was telling us that animals don’t have souls… That was the moment that I realised that I really do have these strong views.”
– “I had a dog at the time… she was just as full and complex of a being as I was.”
– Moving away from religion to “do my own thing”
– “I’m pretty terrified of death”
– Focusing on morality “That’s my thing – rather than
anything outside of the realm of what we can see and how we can treat other people”
– JW: Psychological motivations for religious belief: fear
of uncertainty, fear of death, a hope that god has a plan
– “I got to learn more and more about the Catholic
church and realise how much I disagree with it”
– JW: Epistemological and ethical reasons people move away from religion
Maja:
– Growing up in Germany, then moving to Scotland
– “It was rare… to meet someone who wasn’t christened”
… and much more! (full notes at sentientism.info)
47:55 What and Who Matters?
01:12:05 A Better World?
01:37:15 Follow!
Carol: @DrCarolJasper, @veganfoodtrainer
Maja: @maja_cullen_
Devon: @devonmdocherty, Devon on LinkedIn, @earthlinged
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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