103: "Humanism is just way too focused on one animal" - Philosopher Constantine Sandis - Sentientism

Constantine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, Director of Lex Academic & a Fellow of the RSA. He describes his philosophical interests as “unfashionably broad, but I work primarily in the philosophy of action, moral psychology & interpersonal understanding. I also have an interest in the psychology of philosophy, as advanced by Hume, Nietzsche, & Wittgenstein.” He spent most of his twenties as a theatre director & playwright.

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 

01:15 Constantine's Intro

- "I'm looking forward to finding out if I'm a Sentientist or not"

- Teaching & researching philosophy

- Phil of action, Wittgenstein & Hume, virtue ethics, anti-vegan rhetoric

- Rejecting the separation betweeen human & non-human animals "Who are 'we' anyway?"

- The value of improving human worldviews (epistemology & ethics)

- Beliefs & values & reasons driving action

08:07 What's Real?

- Greek Orthodox Christian upbringing but "science was taken very seriously"

- Born in India, living in Zimbabwe

- Being placed in "Protestant" vs. "Catholic" or "Ethics" class

- Agnostic as a teenager

- Degree at Oxford in phil & theology "By the end of that degree I was atheist"

- "The more you read about it [the bible] as a human text..."

- Studying Christian moral reasoning & Nietzsche

- Wittgenstein & Kierkegaard

- "I'm not one of those Dawkins style atheists"

- "I just don't have this faith"

- "Everyday life was very naturalistic"

- Culturally Christian

- Those who stay religious but update the ethics

- "I think there are things we can't explain"

- Doubt as central to science & naturalism

- "I know the precise second I switched from agnostic to atheist" in a phil of religion lecture: "Just because it's possible something exists & you can't disprove it's existence doesn't mean you're agnostic about it... a 3 headed dragon in some other galaxy." Atheism & Adragonism :)

- Norms re: religious rituals/marriage

- Why do religious organisations get a pass re: basic ethics? (sexism, homophobia, abuse)?

- Atheist societies often suffer from similar problems

- The good that can come from religion

- Allen Ginsberg re: homophobia in Cuba

- Post-truth, QAnon, homeopathy, Flat Earth... epistemology fails

- Refusing medical treatment on religious grounds

- Vountary euthanasia

- Wearing the hijab

- Personal autonomy, but don't harm others

35:18 What (and who) matters?

...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. Come join us there!

Thanks Graham.