"Animal activists don't have to be on the political left" - Josh Milburn - Sentientism Ep:50

Описание: Josh (https://josh-milburn.com/ &   / joshlmilburn   &   / aveganphilosopher  ) is a moral & political philosopher with research interests in animal ethics, the philosophy of food, liberal & libertarian political theory & applied ethics. He is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Dept of Politics & International Relations at the University of Sheffield. He co-hosts the Knowing Animals podcast.

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 audio is also on our Podcast - subscribe here: https://apple.co/391khQO​​​​ & the other platforms https://pod.link/1540408008​​​​​​.

We discuss:
00:00 Taking an interdisciplinary approach to academia & activism
Encountering various religious traditions as a child
Thinking "I don't believe that" at 8 years old re: Noah's ark
Being a "militant atheist" as a teenager
Studying religions to undergrad level
What is real & what we can know to be real
There is a world out there but we don't know all about it
Science & naturalism
Dogma vs open-mindedness & humility
Moral realism & different kinds of claim/evidence
The dangers of moral relativism & nihilism
Grounding morality in a naturalistic understanding of sentient beings & sentience. "I don't suffering & I don't think you do either"
Pluralism
Religious studies didn't cover philosophy
Being very resistant to vegetarianism. A fundamental challenge
Reading Peter Singer at 17 while considering studying philosophy
"Philosophers are often not the best activists"
Philosophical arguments don't have the same impact on everyone
Some people "get it" but still don't change. Others just don't get it
"Imagine animals had rights - how would we feed the world?... It would't be a vegan food system." Clean/cultivated meats & milks
"Can we get to an ethical food system without people having to change their practices at all?"
Animals where it's less certain whether they are sentient. Invertebrates, oysters, jellyfish, insects, sponges
Deciding how to act in the face of uncertainty
"It's got to be a high bar to say 'you cannot do that thing that is central to your life'" but "Sentient animals have rights" and that's enough to tell pig farmers to stop
Edge cases re: veganism & animal ethics
Liberalism & state coercion. Only using coercion when injustice is clear
Having compassion for human sentients too, even those doing harm
#JustTransition
The history of the term "Sentientism". Rodman, Ryder, Singer
It's hard not to be consequentialist in its broadest sense
Deontological rules do have to pay attention to what happens
Gary Francione's abolitionism
Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka's Zoopolis
Sentientism as a pluralistic philosophy
"Animal activists don't have to be on the political left"
Sentientism rules out intra-human discriminations. Racism/homophobia etc. don't belong
Robert Nozick was a vegetarian & a libertarian
Academics can find new ways of thinking about human-animal relations
Activists need to meet people where they are
Not every argument we have is about a perfect end-state
Sometimes we have to work within existing systems
How can liberalism be more friendly towards non-human animals
Any political system will work better if more people are sentientist
"Being a sentientist gives us more in common than sharing politics"
The biggest political & ethical issue is what we're doing to other animals
Agreeing on the most fundamental issues is most important. Finding common ground
Most people with supernatural worldviews use naturalism most of the time
Most of those who consume animal products see animal suffering as negative
"Change is coming because we have to change" re: animals, zoonosis, anti-microbial resistance, topsoil erosion, climate change
Do the biggest problems have the most obvious solutions? But "humans are weird"
Risks of motivated reasoning & non-scientific thinking in the vegan movement. "Wooganism"
Veganism has many powerful positive effects but isn't a perfect panacea
Humans can respond well when the crisis is imminent and severe enough
The generally positive community responses to COVID-19 might give us hope
"Compassion isn't enough" - we need naturalism too
"Stamping out the risk of embracing nonsense in the vegan community"
"If you want to collect crystals or enjoy tarot cards that's fine - but..."

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

​Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Main one:   / sentientism​  .

Thanks to Graham for the post-prod   / cgbessellieu  .