63: “May all beings be happy & free from suffering” – Cebuan Bliss – 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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Cebuan (Cebby) Bliss (https://twitter.com/CebbyBliss) is a PhD candidate researching animal and biodiversity governance at Radboud University in the Netherlands (https://www.ru.nl/english/people/bliss-c/).

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 also on the Sentientism YouTube Channel.

We discuss:

0:00 Welcome

1:03 Cebuan’s Intro – from the corporate world to academia

– Environmental & animal welfare governance

4:17 What’s Real?

– Growing up in the UK in a Christian religious context, but not in a religious family

– Having a naturalistic mindset from the start

– Linking food to animals & going vegetarian at 6 yrs old (later vegan)

– The commodification of life in animal agriculture

– Seeing foxhunting, shooting & other traditional “countryside pursuits”

– Atheism, agnosticism & developing an appreciation for eastern philosophy & spirituality through yoga

7:20 What Matters?

– Compassion, sentience & avoiding harm

– “May all beings be happy & free from suffering… may the thoughts, words and actions of my life contribute to the happiness and freedom for all.”

11:55 Psychedelics, spiritualism & naturalism

– Psychedelics & the perspectives they can open up

– The precautionary principle. Acting in uncertainty

– Bayesian thinking & probability

14:37 Supernaturalism, Religion & Morality

– Using Holism “circle of life!” to justify harming/killing others

– The centrality of compassion

18:16 Moral Scope & Considerability

– Anthropocentrism, Sentiocentrism, Biocentrism, Ecocentrism

– Combining ecocentrism &  a compassionate animal welfare perspective. Compassionate conservation

– Invasive species governance

– How we categorise non-human animals (invasive, companion, farmed, vermin…) 

– Sentience as a grounding

– The instrumental or intrinsic value of ecosystems

25:00 The Future – breaking out of anthropocentrism

– Naturalism & sentiocentrism vs. social norms and indoctrination

– The damage caused by anthropocentrism

– EU Lisbon Treaty (2009) recognition of animal sentience

– Human cultures & customs & industry used as justification for harm & killing

– Transformative governance: Integrated, inclusive, informed, adaptive. Tackling root causes

– Changing entire systems. Social/economic…

– “Humans can be thought of as an invasive species”

– Invasive species can improve biodiversity

29:05 Sentientist Development Goals / Universal Declaration of Sentient Rights?

…and much more. Full show notes on YouTube and Sentientism.info. 

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/.

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