49: "I'm concerned with oppression in all its forms" - philosopher Joey Tuminello of Farm Forward, the Better Food Foundation and McNeese University - Sentientist Conversation

Joey (https://josephtuminello.academia.edu/) is asst. professor of philosophy at McNeese State Uni & program coordinator for the nonprofits Farm Forward & Better Food Foundation (See also Default Veg). His research covers philosophies of food, medicine, animals & environment. He teaches biomedical ethics & sections of ethical theory & existentialism.

In these 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 here on YouTube (subscribe there too!).

We discuss (full show notes are on YouTube and Sentientism.info):

- Growing up in a Catholic household in Louisiana

- "Who's your mama, are you Catholic & can you make a roux?"

- Questioning religion early on. Developing scepticism. Understanding mechanisms of control in religion & beyond

- Hard-core atheist phase & studying philosophy

- Non-theism & atheism. Tempered with humility & openness

- "Open-mindedness & scepticism go hand in hand"

- Deciding not to get confirmed

- Attending Catholic high school that didn't welcome questioning & experiencing social adversity

- Social justice & hateful interpretations of some religions (e.g. Westboro Baptist Church)

- Using religious arguments to justify discriminations

- Analytic philosophy & challenging religious inconsistencies

- "Ambiguity & tension is part of the human experience"

- Humility & open-mindedness needs to be at the core of naturalism

- The arrogance in "angry atheism"

- Getting comfortable not knowing. With-holding belief until there's evidence

- Meta-physics & ethics

- "We don't have access to the ultimate nature of reality" but there are still things we can meaningfully say about reality

- Experiences are happening. Phenomenology, directed consciousness & the self/non-self

- Nagel's "What is it like to be a bat?"

- Consciousness, interests that matter and ethics (caring about the interests of others)

- Lacking a justification for the exploitation or oppression of others, human or not

- The "Embrace The Void" podcast with Joey's friend Aaron

- Pre-human morality

- Is the choice to be moral simply the choice to care about the perspectives of others

- Moral inter-subjectivism. There are moral truths independent of each mind but they do require an interface between subjects

- Sentient beings do matter morally, but is sentience the only thing that matters? Is cutting down a tree wrong if it has no impact on sentients?

- The risk of anthropocentrism, because humans are defining & assessing sentience. But sentience existed long before & far beyond humans

- And much more... see YouTube.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "wall" https://sentientism.info/wall/ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.

Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Main one is here on FaceBook.

Thanks to Graham.