Sentientism – Details, episodes & analysis

Jonina (@JoninaTurzi) is cofounder of Lancaster Farm Sanctuary, a volunteer district leader for HSUS, & a doctor of physical therapy & yoga educator.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

0:00 Welcome

1:24 Jonina's Intro

- Lancaster Farm Sanctuary, physical therapy, yoga teaching, sobriety, queerness

2:33 What's Real?

- Hippie parents, social justice, civil rights

- Catholic father & schooling, more cultural than doctrinal

- Brethren Church family history

- Parents with a spiritual appreciation without buying into religious doctrine

- Feeling the freedom to explore "I just want you to be happy"

- "It felt like a human construct"

- Identifying as an atheist as a teenager

- Finding a beauty in the human body (& a sense of spiritual meaning) through an anatomy class

- Being bullied, as a "young queer kid", by members of "Youth for Christ"

- "I have no idea what's real"

- The lower & upper case "Self" in some Yoga practice

- Some things might always be unknowable

- Reverence, wonder & awe... openness

17:10 What (& who) Matters?

- Oneness & interconnectedness

- Unnecessary harm to sentient others

- Might plants have a kind of sentience? "I'm OK with saying we shouldn't harm plants unnecessarily"

- Seeing the similiarities between human and non-human animals through physiology

- "The idea that non-human animals aren't sentient is so bizarre to me"

- Movement & intent as indicators of sentience

- Are Roomba's sentient?

- Evolution, behaviour/comms, information processing as inferential evidence for sentience

- Intrinsic & instrumental value

- The ethical dangers of holistic/ecocentric thinking

- "Spirtual Bypassing"... rushing to find a purpose/meaning/spiritual goal while bypassing compassion & understanding

- Knowing very spiritual people who also own factory farms

- A local factory farm with a Bible verse written on it

- "The foundation of a spiritual practice is caring for others"

- Stages of moral development: Ego, ethno, anthropocentric...

37:30 Vegetarian to vegan

- Rebelling against Jonina's mother's vegetarianism as a teenager

- Being vegetarian. Not understanding dairy

- Seeing slaughterhouse footage & going vegan together with Jonina's partner

- Social indoctrination re: animal ethics & the supernatural

- Climate change

- The relationship between scarcity & morality. Is it harder to be moral under scarcity?

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

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook.

Thanks for the post-prod Graham.

Thom Norman is the co-founder of FarmKind, a new non-profit focused on raising money for some of the best farmed animal charities. FarmKind is designed to help donors both have a big impact for animals and donate to the organisations they care about most. It allows users to split donations between an expert-recommended super-effective charity and their favourite charity, then provides a bonus on both.

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"

Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

00:00 Clips!

00:56 Welcome

- Cameron King episode

02:30 Thom's Intro

- Co-founding @farmkind 

- "What's the thing I can do best... to tackle the issue of factory farming?"... "We believe the single biggest thing... is to donate to the right charities... we help people to do that"

- Finding charities that do great work and making donating to those charities super-easy

03:44 What's Real?

- A very, very religious family "church is an integral part... of their worldview... also social structures"

- "Broadly a positive thing"

- Anglican, Church of England Christian

- Asking philosophical questions that "hit up against some bible verse or god - and that's the end of the conversation"

- Conversations with some Christians about animals: "Humans are made in the image of god... we are above other animals... that is kind of the end of the conversation"

- "As someone who increasingly... took the suffering of animals very seriously... I don't think that's where the conversation should end... and for many Christians that's not where it ends"

- "You can think that humans matter more than animals and still think that animals do matter"

- "We can still agree on basic things like 'suffering is bad'... 'animals suffer'... 'if there are things we can do to prevent suffering'... 'then it seems obvious that that's a good thing'"

- The people working within religious communities to emphasise more universal sentiocentric compassion... #ahimsa, #stewardship, care and compassion, mercy

- Reading religious apologetics and secular points of view

- "I don't know what I think... a pragmatic pragmatism?... what version of the world do I see that allows me to operate... to move through it... even if epistemically or ethically that's not 100% perfectly logically sound"

- Humility... "We need to be clear that we're not sure that we're right"

- Donating to the most effective charities "is not the only thing people care about"... so FarmKind allows donation splitting... head and heart donations

- The tension between different values... more rational and more intuitive / personal

- "It's very important we don't disregard those emotional reasons"

15:03 What Matters?

26:00 Who Matters?

38:24 A Better World?

01:08:37 Follow Thom and FarmKind  

- Farmkind.giving (sign up to the newsletter!)

- @FarmKindThom

- Thom on LinkedIn

And more... full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠groups⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The biggest so far is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on FaceBook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Come join us there!

Robert Grillo is an activist, author and speaker for all species. He is also the founder and director of Free from Harm, a non profit dedicated to helping end animal exploitation. He founded Slaughter Free Chicago in 2018 which has now grown into the Slaughter Free Network. As a communications professional for over 25 years, Robert once worked on large food industry accounts where he acquired a behind-the-scenes perspective on food branding and marketing. His book, Farm to Fable: The Fictions of Our Animal-Consuming Culture, explores the powerful narratives driving our culture of mass animal consumption. Robert's other published works include contributions to The Humane Hoax, Caged: Top Activists Share Their Wisdom on Effective Animal Advocacy and Circles of Compassion: Connecting Issues of Justice.

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"

Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

00:00 Clips!

00:55 Welcome

- Free from Harm's "Humane Farmer" transfarmation stories: https://freefromharm.org/humane-farmer/

03:25 Robert's Intro

- Author, speaker, activist

- Free from Harm's mission: "advance a #plantbased food system and challenge the dominance of animal agriculture through bold and innovative grass-roots action."

- Evolving from an on-line resource to "on the ground activism"

05:16 What's Real?

- At 10 yrs old father passed away. Creative, jazz, painting, architecture

- Exploring dad's library... ways of thinking, ethics

- "He was a non-believer - not a spiritual person"

- Mother also non-religious

- Ordinary middle-class upbringing

- "I was definitely an outsider... I didn't really fit in... now I embrace it... causes me to question... being open to new ideas and scepticism... I feel like it's a strength"

- The risks of scepticism spilling over into conspiracism

- "Sometimes it's a small group of people that sense an injustice... that mainstream society doesn't... that's the role of activism... awakening and triggering of popular support to bring justice."

- JW: Why epistemology matters "it's not just a popularity contest..." it's the weight of evidence

- Spirituality / supernatural / transcendent?: "We have so much to deal with here that I don't have time for that stuff... I'm not seeking it out at this point in my life"

12:56 What Matters?

- Experiencing father's suffering and death as a child. "I developed a sense of empathy"

- "I didn't really come into an understanding of the suffering of other animals... until much later in life"

- Emotional (e.g. empathy, care) vs. intellectual (utility, justice, rights) moral influences

- Sympathy, empathy & compassion

17:28 Who Matters?

- The risks of care/empathy in narrowing our moral scope

- "I came to realise what the real conditions were for the animals that suffer in our food system... their suffering was like our suffering."

- Watching documentaries and @mercyforanimals  investigative footage

- "Humane, sustainable farming?... empty marketing promises."

28:44 A Better Future?

01:07:30 Follow Robert

- robertgrillo.com

- https://freefromharm.org/

- @Free_from_harm

- @robert_grillo

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on FaceBook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Come join us there!

This episode is a recording of my presentation about Sentientism to the Terra.do climate change platform & community. Many thanks to Adam and the team for inviting me. My core presentation runs for about 30 minutes - the rest is an open conversation with the group. Drop me an email at hello at sentientism dot info if you'd like a copy of the slides - or you can see them on the YouTube of my presentation.

Terra.do is the world’s first online climate learning platform and community for professionals looking to pivot their career towards climate solutions. Their goal is to get 100 million people, in all sectors of society, working on climate change by 2030. They run cohort-based online programs for talented individuals that teach them everything about climate, plug them into a network of mentors and expose them to full-time/part-time/entrepreneurial work opportunities in the space.)

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what (and who) matters?”

Sentientism answers those questions with a commitment to "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings."

Find out more at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

LoriKim (she/her/we/our) describes herself as an educator, organiser, activist, conservationist, abolitionist, naturalist & healer. Originally from Jamaica & now living in the Bronx, USA, LoriKim has dedicated her life to working for social & environmental justice specifically organizing around LGBTQIA+, Black, Brown & Indigenous communities.  LoriKim’s work in anthropology & her training as a biologist has helped her work against environmental racism, in providing environmental education for People of Color & in working towards decolonialism & liberation through veganism for over 25 years. LoriKim works as a founder, facilitator and organiser with organisations including BlackVegFest https://blackvegfest.org/ & The Cypher.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:26 LoriKim's Intro

- Educator, organiser, activist, conservationist, abolitionist, naturalist, healer

- "Black liberation practice" with "a queer & vegan lens"

02:38 What's Real?

- Growing up in Kingston, Jamaica

- "Being a Black country... what that means is that we had to really hold tight to our traditions, our histories that were muddled, were removed... because of slavery"

- "Highly colonised", stringent laws, highly carceral

- "Missionaries saw opportunity to come in and bring their various and sundry versions of the truth"

- Synchronising traditions into Christianity as the only way they could survive

- Growing up Catholic "A very white and blond Jesus... this is not someone I can relate to."

- "I never believed in Santa Claus"

- "Religion... as the framework I had to live under in order to go about my daily life"

- Communion, saying rosary, prayer

- "What I saw in the natural world did not reflect this idea that god created all of these things... I watched creation happen."

- Moving to the US at 13

- "This religion doesn't make any sense to me" & "bruk out" from church

- Coming out & stopping eating meat at 14

- "I could not equate this idea of loving all beings... and also eating them"

- "Yes - I'm an atheist... I don't believe any of this"

- "However, spirit moves you."

- Talking with ancestors "I thought that was me talking to myself, but..."

- "I would ask for things in my head & it would happen"

- "I never really strayed away from thinking about the world beyond"

- A multitude of universes & studying science

- "A hybrid of really being rooted in science... & there's so much more that's unknown that I know that I feel"

- "I'm an Aquarius & we don't follow anybody else's rules"

- Practising things that come from a lot of African ancestral traditions, "but not strictly"

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Nicolas is a research associate at INRAE (L’institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement) and the Toulouse School of Economics. His work focuses on risk and decision theory, environmental economics, benefit-cost analysis and, more recently, on animal welfare. He has published scientific papers on subjects including the precautionary principle, the value of statistical life, and climate policy. He has organized several international conferences and written numerous articles for the general public, as well as reports on risk policy issues.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:31 Nicolas' Intro

- Economics, risk, environment, psychology, now non-human animals

- "Trying to include animal issues into mainstream economics"

- From anthropocentrism to sentientism in every field?

04:40 What's Real?

- Growing up in SW France

- Catholic parents, but "religion was not very important"

- Attending church

- Not anti-religion but not a positive view either

- "Religions have contributed to a strong divide between humans and animals... dominion... stewardship"

- Surrounded by animals... dogs, cows in grandfather's farm, horses

- "I liked to view myself as an animal lover"

- "I like to see myself as a scientifically-minded person" 

- Religious & naturalistic routes to anthropocentrism

12:08 What & Who Matters?

- "We are raised to eat meat... and we don't really question it"

- "My vegetarian epiphany" 10 years ago on a date

- "I was completely ignorant about what is going on in that industry [dairy, eggs, meat]"

- "I didn't see that when it's quite obvious - and I have wrong beliefs - what happened in my brain, my mind & in society?"

- Cognitive dissonance, meat paradox, psychology: "Every time I had new sources of information it was bad news"

- A colleague, expert in the meat industry, asked "what's the problem with animal welfare in the meat industry?"

- "People don't want to see, don't want to know... even the experts"

- "There is a demand for cognitive dissonance, but also a supply"

- The evolution of morality, but why do we care about animals - some more than others? Extension of our compassion for humans, reciprocity?

- Emotional / intellectual routes into moral consideration

- Bio/ecocentrism/holism

- "In economics, all research is anthropocentric"

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Marina is a journalist, currently focusing on factory farming and the criminalization of activists who fight it. Marina has written for Vox, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Intercept and many other publications. She used to be an editor for Harvard Magazine. Before that, she wrote and edited for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Toledo Blade and The Harvard Crimson.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:25 Marina's Intro

- Zeroing in on animal-focused journalism

03:20 What's Real?

- Raised by a single mum

- Jewish but not v.religious (like many Soviet jews)

- Emigrating from Belarus to the USA at 3yrs old

- Growing up in St. Louis

- Orthodox Jewish school to 8th grade but "feeling like an outsider"

- "I was sceptical of the religious stuff from a pretty young age"

- Updating "my religion" on FaceBook as "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" in middle school

- Gender segregated classes

- Hearing anti-Arab racist statements in class

- "A profound sense of justice"

- Going vegetarian at 11 yrs old "if we don't have to kill animals... then it's wrong to do that"

- School-mates "did not understand vegetarianism... god gave us dominion over animals... they're happy to be killed & give us sustenance."

- Secular, progressive high-school, but "I wouldn't say that people's attitudes... were particularly different... different reasons... protein, animals not intelligent..."

- Moving to veganism

- "I see everything through an animal liberation lens"

- Secular/scientific/naturalistic worldviews don't guarantee good ethics either

- "I feel a profound connection to alll of life on earth, particularly animals & sentient life... it's something I can't express in material terms"

- Animal ways of understanding can transcend what humans are capable of. Birds navigation, dog smell capability...

- "Respect for non-human life & epistemological humility should underpin our efforts to understand the world - rather than the assumption that humans have the right to manage & dominate"

- "I still identify as Jewish... an important part of who I am"

- Atheists/agnostics within religious communities

- "The way I feel about life & animals can definitely be described as spriritual"

- Human dominionism "is totally at odds with my worldview"

- The harms that can come from religious or naturalistic worldviews

- "Science is responsible for a lot of evil stuff too"

24:00 What Matters?

- Justice

- "I reject any form of violence... & that's what animal agriculture is"

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Susana is an assistant professor based at the Department of Logic, History, and Philosophy of Science of UNED, working on animal ethics and the philosophy of animal minds. She holds a BA in Philosophy from Complutense University of Madrid, an MA in Global Ethics and Human Values from King’s College London and a PhD in Philosophy from UNED, Spain. She has been a post-doc fellow at the University of Graz and at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna. Susana describes her research interest as focusing on “what animals are capable of feeling, thinking, and doing, and what this means for the sort of treatment that we owe them.”

Susana led the project “Animals and the Concept of Death” which culminated in her book, “La Zarigüeya De Schrödinger” or “Schrödinger’s Possum”.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:46 Susana's Intro

- Vienna & Madrid cultures re: animals & veganism

03:57 What's Real?

- Growing up in a 100% atheist household. Unusual for 1980's Spain

- "I used to think of god as a woman" but "I never had it as a belief"

- No religious education... "It's a little bit sad"

- "It's always been very natural to not have god as part of the explanation"

- Some sense of shame about not being religious as a kid but "I quickly grew proud of my beliefs"

- Attending an international private school with rich kids "I knew I was different"... incorporated being an atheist into that difference

- Superstitions "Just in case" :)

12:51 What Matters?

- "I want to believe in moral realism - I don't want to be a relativist"

- "Sentience is definitely something that provides a good grounding for ethics & moral status"

- "I feel like something is left out if we focus excessively on sentience"

- Agency as a potential moral grounding? "Something that ought to be respected about agency"

- Wilcox: "agency & sentience are co-extensive"

- "Harms beyond sentience?... ways of wronging animals that don't correlate with subjective feelings": dignity, preventing from relations / developing capacity

- Drawn to objectiveless accounts of wellbeing more than hedonist accounts

- "Pleasure is something important... but a life that contains only pleasure... might be a good enough life, but it's somehow impoverished"

- Nihilism

- "It feels like experiences aren't everything"... "Experiences are subject to manipulation, habituation..."

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Mark is a psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, best known for his discovery of the brain mechanisms of dreaming and his use of psychoanalytic methods in contemporary neuroscience. He holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital and is the President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association. He is also Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Mark has received numerous awards, notably Honorary Membership of the New York Psychoanalytic Society, the American College of Psychoanalysts and the American College of Psychiatrists. He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters, and 6 books. His second book, The Neuropsychology of Dreams, was a landmark contribution to the field. His 2002 book (with Oliver Turnbull), The Brain and the Inner World was a best-seller and has been translated into 13 languages. His latest book, on the hard problem of consciousness, is The Hidden Spring.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:29 Mark's Intro

- The brain as the organ of the mind

- Breaking from behaviourism

- Studying psychoanalysis (first person) alongside neuroscience (studying from the outside)

- The value of interdisciplinary studies of consciousness

- Artificial intelligence perspectives

06:08 What's Real?

- Sunday school, Christian mother

- At 5-6 yrs old, father said "Your mum believes in all that stuff, I don't."

- Brother's horrific accident & brain damage: "He came back from the hospital... a changed person." "Who is this guy and where is Lee?"

- "I was forced at an early age to confront this question of the relationship mind & body... the person & the organism"

- "My sentient being must somehow be bound up with the functions of this bodily organ"

- "I think we underestimate little kids... they really do think about these things"

- "Clearly he is his brain"

- Finding it terrifying... intimations of our own mortality

- Lying in bed in panic: "I am going to cease to exist"

- Depression: "what's the point?"

- Becoming atheist, now agnostic. Appreciating the limits of human comprehension (through working with patients)

- "We're only able to comprehend as much as the instrument we use... is capable of... it's not a perfect instrument"

- Taking a comfort in ignorance & the limits of our capability

- "Do the best we can to understand" but "science has limits"

- Un-testable/falsifiable beliefs. Delusions as a response to frightening uncertainties

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.

Steve is a philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University, East Bay who specializes in animal ethics, environmental ethics and meta-ethics. He was co-founder in 1985 of the journal Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics and served as its initial co-editor. Steve was a member of the board of the American Philosophical Quarterly (1991–1994). In 1983, Steve founded, with his wife Jeanne, the Hayward Friends of Animals Humane Society. They now operate Second Chance, Helping the Pets of People in Need, in California. Steve wrote Morals, Reason, and Animals, in 1987, Subjective Morals, in 2011, and edited Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat; published in 2004.

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 YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

 01:34 Steve's Intro

- Getting out of the ivory tower "Put the values you espouse into effect & help the animals"

- A seminal early voice in animal ethics

6:05 What's Real?

- Growing up in Salt Lake City

- Immigrant parents from war-torn Europe "focused on making sure they could make a living"

- Greek Orthodox & Methodist Christian parents

- Sunday School

- Order of the Cross cult (vegetarian because of reincarnation)

- "I was never interested in religion" "The story of Noah was really nuts"

- "The story in the 1950's was you couldn't survive without meat... but my mother proved that wrong"

- "We liked animals... didn't see the need to kill them for something totally unnecessary"

- James vs. Bertrand Russell "It's immoral to believe something just because it makes you feel good"

17:03 What Matters?

- Literature as a way into philosophy

- Philosophy at Rice University (classical, medieval, existential)

22:52 Who Matters?

- Singer's Animal Liberation

- Animals "were my friends"

- "The most basic principle of morality is not to cause suffering for no good reason"

- "I was very much a Kantian"

- Writing "Are Animals Moral Beings"

- "Utilitarianism can tend to subordinate the indvidual... it tried to do a science of ethics"

- "Kantianism has problems too"

- Pluralism & pragmatism: Care ethics, Singer & utility, Regan & rights, Korsgaard & Kant...

- "We need to build on history"

- Anthropocentric & bio/ecocentric challenges

- “A lot of environmental ethics… is nonsense”

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.