127: "Sensitivity has driven me to understand" - Economist & Author Chaitanya Talreja - Sentientism

Chaitanya is Assistant Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in the Centre for Regulatory Policy and Governance. He has a PhD in Economics. Chaitanya’s research interests include economic development strategies in the global south, structural change, economic development and regulatory policy, urban economics, and non-anthropocentric strategies/alternatives to anthropocentric value systems in progress and conservation including food systems research (and maybe Sentientist Economics?)

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

01:42 Chaitanya's Intro

- Economics as a way to improve the world

03:45 What's Real?

- Growing up in a #sindhi family in India

- #pakistan , #india & partition

- Having a #hindu temple at home

- An #atheist  father "he didn't believe in all those things" who turned to religion after a difficult time

- "I don't believe in god"

- "Religion has always been a tool to marginalise different sections of the society"

- Rejecting faith

- Degree, masters, PhD... "questioning things... critical thinking"

- Before then, unthinkingly accepting what had been told

- "The way you think has real impact on society"

- "There are several ways of living life and one has agency"

- Evidence & reason, ethical & systemic critiques of religion

- "It's a very hard task to grasp reality"

- "I would rather... analyse things around me as they are"

- #pluralism m

- Naturalistic views of relatedness & interconnectedness

- Finding a balance between defeatist humility & arrogant hubris

22:54 What Matters?

- Being sensitive, as a child, to humans & non-humans

- Growing up in a patriarchal society

- "Not cheating, working hard... stopping at red lights"

26:49 Who Matters?

- Sindhis typically eat meat, but father said "I always felt it was not the right thing to do"

- Buying meat from a public slaughterhouse "I did not feel comfortable but I used to love it [eating meat]"

- Family gatherings centred around #meat  "everyone around me was relishing... & my father was telling me this is not the right thing to do"

- Fighting about eating meat at 4-5 years old

- Visiting the #slaughterhouse "this is where it comes from"

- #sentience & the dangers of human-defined moral scope...

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

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Thanks Graham.

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