Not Quite Sentientist

Richard is an ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is a vocal atheist and naturalist. He grants moral consideration to sentient non-humans in principle and hopes for a vegan world, as you can hear in these discussions (with Sentientist Peter Singer and in this talk). However, in practice he continues to buy and consume sentient animal products. The Center for Inquiry, where Richard is a founding board member, published this article about Sentientism in their Free Inquiry magazine.
Richard on Wikipedia
@RichardDawkins

Adrian is a multi-award winning fantasy and science fiction author. He is known best for his series Shadows of the Apt and for his novel Children of Time. Children of Time was awarded the 30th Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016.

Adrian has a naturalistic worldview and, conceptually (not yet in practice), a sentiocentric moral scope.

Find his Sentientist Conversation with me here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

@aptshadow
Adrian on Wikipedia
adriantchaikovsky.com

Steve is a cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular science author. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature  argues that violence in human societies has generally declined over time. Enlightenment Now  uses social science data to show a general improvement of the human condition over recent history. Steve is a Humanist who is also comfortable also identifying as a Sentientist given he grants moral consideration to all sentient beings. He doesn’t yet seem to have applied that stance to his consumption decisions.

The closing paragraph of Enlightenment Now includes the phrase “The story belongs… to any sentient creature with the power of reason and the urge to persist in its being.” The book analyses the decline in “animal cruelty” as a sign of progress yet largely ignores the clearly anti-progress story of the rapid, relentless growth of animal farming. Maybe the next edition will be titled: “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Sentientism, and Progress”?

Steve on Wikipedia
@sapinker
stevenpinker.com
Steve in conversation with suspected Sentientist Stephen Fry, where he says: “To treat other people and ultimately other sentient creatures as equivalent in interests to my own.”

Helen (@hkopnina) is Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Business at Northumbria University & The Hague University. Her research focuses on environmental education, biodiversity & corporate sustainability.

She is an atheist and has a naturalistic worldview. Helen has an ecocentric ethics and describes herself as a flexitarian, implying she doesn’t yet grant moral consideration to all sentient beings.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

Greg is a singer and evolutionary biologist. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist and only constant member of punk rock band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He embarked on a solo career in 1997, when he released the album American Lesion. His follow-up album, Cold as the Clay, was released nine years later. His newest solo work is Millport, released in 2017. Greg obtained his PhD in zoology at Cornell University and has lectured courses in natural sciences at both the University of California, Los Angeles and at Cornell University.

Greg writes that he is an atheist: “I’ve never believed in God, which technically makes me an atheist”. However, he prefers to identify as a naturalist rather than as an atheist, saying: “Evidence is my guide. I rely on observation, experimentation and verification.”

He describes himself as Straight Edge which often includes a vegan philosophy but I’m not sure of his views on non-human sentient animal ethics.

Greg on Wikipedia
@doctorgraffin

Sam is an author, neuroscientist, and podcast host. Sam’s book, The Moral Landscape, sets out a naturalistic ethics that is largely consistent with Sentientism, in that it grants moral consideration to conscious non-human as well as human beings. However, despite experimenting with vegetarianism and veganism, Sam continues to buy and consume products made from sentient beings, implying he doesn’t personally grant them meaningful moral consideration. He is a vocal atheist and naturalist.
Sam on Wikipedia
@SamHarrisOrg

Michael is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor-in-chief of its magazine “Skeptic”. Michael is an advocate for naturalism and skepticism. While he has acknowledged that animal farming may come to be looked on by future generations as a moral abomination or holocaust, he continues to purchase and consume animal products.
From this 2016 Salon article: “Michael Shermer, author of ‘The Moral Arc,’ tweeted, ‘Ugh. Watched The Earthlings last night researching moral progress. Feels like moral regress when it comes to animals,’ as well as writing an article titled ‘“Confessions of a Speciesist.’ However promising these signs were, sadly he has also admitted, ‘No I’m not a vegetarian but think we should expand the moral sphere to include marine mammals and all primates as a good start.'”
Michael on Wikipedia
@michaelshermer
michaelshermer.com

Martha was nominated as a “Suspected Sentientist” via our “I know a Sentientist” form (thank you!). More details are forthcoming, but in the meantime, here is Martha on Wikipedia.

Martha has written extensively on non-human animal ethics. While she has focused on developing a capabilities approach she does seem to grant moral consideration to all sentient beings regardless of capabilities. While she seems to have a broadly naturalistic worldview she converted to Judaism in 2008.

Richard (Dick) Claxton Gregory was a comedian, civil rights and animal rights and vegan activist. Gregory became popular among the African-American communities in the southern United States with his “no-holds-barred” sets, poking fun at the bigotry and racism in the United States. In 1961 he became a staple in comedy clubs, appeared on national television and released comedy record albums. Gregory was at the forefront of political activism in the 1960s, when he protested against the Vietnam War and racial injustice. He was arrested multiple times and went on many hunger strikes. He later became a speaker and author. He said: ” Because I’m a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn’t be a part of it.”

While he was described as a religious skeptic, it doesn’t seem that he held a naturalistic worldview. He said “I am god, you are god.” He often talked of spirituality and supported a number of poorly-evidenced conspiracy theories.

Dick on Wikipedia

Kat Dennings (Katherine Victoria Litwack), is an actress. She is known for starring as Max Black in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls and as Darcy Lewis in the Marvel superhero films Thor and Thor: The Dark World. Since making her acting debut in 2000, Dennings has appeared in films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma’s House 2, Charlie Bartlett, The House Bunny, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Defendor, and Suburban Gothic.
Kat seems to have a naturalistic worldview, having said that Judaism “is an important part of my history, but, as a whole, religion is not a part of my life.” In late 2020 she said she was adopting a plant-based diet, although primarily for environmental rather than ethical reasons.
Kat on Wikipedia
katdennings.com
@katdenningsss
@OfficialKat

Siân is a politician who has served as Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since 2018. She currently is a member of the London Assembly and the only Green Party councillor on Camden Council, representing Highgate. While she has substantially reduced her consumption of animal products, she does eat meat occasionally. She is a Humanist and a patron of Humanists UK.
Siân on Wikipedia
@sianberry

Jeremy is a politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2020. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North since 1983. Jeremy says he is sceptical about having God in his life. He is vegetarian. However, he has denied being an atheist and has compared his environmental concerns to a sort of “spiritualism”. This implies he does not have a naturalistic worldview.
Jeremy on Wikipedia
@jeremycorbyn

Alice is a biological anthropologist, biologist, television presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. Since 2019, she has been President of the charity Humanists UK, which campaigns for “a tolerant world where rational thinking and kindness prevail”. Alice does show concern for sentient non-human animals and seems to be working on removing them from her consumption (no meat, but does eat fish, eggs and dairy).
Alice on Wikipedia
@theAliceRoberts
alice-roberts.co.uk

Carl was an astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author and science communicator. He had a robustly naturalistic worldview. He said: “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”
He counselled against anthropocentrism (centring too strongly on the human species). He called on humans “to extend our ethical perspectives downward through the taxa on Earth and upwards to extraterrestrial organisms, if they exist.”However, he was not vegan or even vegetarian, implying that, in practical terms, he didn’t extend meaningful moral consideration to sentient farmed animals.
Article: “Sciences vast cosmic perspective eludes religion”
Carl on Wikipedia

Brian is a musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and astrophysicist. He is the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. He is vegan. He has described himself as an agnostic, but has also said that, at times, be believes that some sort of a god does exist.
Brian on Wikipedia
@DrBrianMay
brianmay.com

Massimo is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. He co-hosted the Rationally Speaking Podcast, and was editor in chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. He is an outspoken critic of pseudoscience and creationism and an advocate for secularism, science education and Stoicism.

Massimo argues that people, particularly Stoics, should be either vegetarian or vegan. Personally, he remains vegetarian. He says: “I’m going to redouble my personal efforts to follow this path and further reduce my intake of other [sentient animal] foodstuff. I hope you will join me, to reduce both suffering in the world and our carbon footprint as a species. And Seneca adds, you’ll also feel better and think more clearly.”

Find Massimo’s Sentientist Conversation with me here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

Massimo on Wikipedia
massimopigliucci.com
@mpigliucci

Adam is a geneticist, author and broadcaster. He was an audio-visual content editor for the journal Nature for a decade, and is a frequent contributor to the newspaper The Guardian. He hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Science, has produced several science documentaries and has published books related to genetics and the origin of life. He is an atheist and a humanist. He describes himself as vegetarian.
Adam on Wikipedia
@AdamRutherford

Paul is a psychologist. He is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University and Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art. His books include “Against Empathy” (making the case for rational compassion), “The Sweet Spot” (about the “pleasures” of suffering) and “Just Babies” (on the origins of good and evil).

Paul has published extensively on compassion and morality, including this paper “Children prioritize humans over animals less than adults do” co-authored with previous Sentientism guest Matti Wilks. His moral scope is unclear and he doesn’t yet seem to have boycotted consumption of sentient animal products. He is an atheist and has a naturalistic worldview, rejecting supernatural beliefs.

paulbloom.net
Paul on Wikipedia
@paulbloomatyale

Cory is a politician, attorney and author who has served as the junior United States Senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Cory is the first African-American U.S. Senator from New Jersey. Cory is vegan and a vocal political advocate for non-human animals. The Humane Society gave him a 100% 2019 scorecard for his positions. He is sponsoring the Farm System Reform Act which aims to restrict factory farming in the U.S. Cory is a Baptist Christian but his personal ethics and policy approach seems largely naturalistic and compassionate.
Cory on Wikipedia
booker.senate.gov
@CoryBooker

A.C. or Anthony is a philosopher and author. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. He is also a supernumerary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He frequently appears in British media discussing philosophy and public affairs.

Anthony is the author of over 30 books on philosophy, biography, history of ideas, human rights and ethics, including The Future of Moral Values (1997), What Is Good? (2000), The Meaning of Things (2001), The Good Book (2011), The God Argument (2013), The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind (2016) and Democracy and its Crises (2017). He was a trustee of the London Library and a fellow of the World Economic Forum, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts.

Anthony has a naturalistic worldview. He is a vice-president of Humanists UK and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.

Anthony has been vegetarian since around 1980, saying in this interview “The kinds of animals that people eat – cows, chicken, sheep and so on – are capable of fear and suffering, and experiences of pleasure. They’re sentient to that extent, and I don’t think there’s any argument about that. There is an argument about fish, and certainly an even bigger argument with shellfish, about whether they’re having a pleasant time or can be afraid or suffer – but I’m rather inclined to draw the line well beyond where it might need to be drawn, just on as-it-were safety’s sake. I can eat healthily, pleasantly and well, and enjoy myself without being involved in too much killing of sentient beings capable of suffering and fear. Now, I wear leather shoes and a leather belt and people point out this is inconsistent, and I tell them they are right. Moreover vegetarianism is actually an illogical position, because if you actually were going to take all this very seriously you should really be a vegan, but I find veganism takes up time and thought and attention and is a bit of a struggle, and there are other things to do with one’s life – so being a vegetarian is really a halfway house where you’re personally self-minimising the involvement you have in factory farming – in the slaughter of sentient beings.”

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism podcast.

A.C. Grayling on Wikipedia
acgrayling.com
@acgrayling

Between 1999 and 2014, Bel was Style Editor for Metro. The fall of Rana Plaza in 2013 forced a re-assessment; today, she is a writer, speaker and activist with a focus on animal rights, the climate emergency and the toxic fashion system. Bel has taken part in and moderated numerous panels for brands and organisations and has been interviewed about her work in activism, alternative systems in fashion and culture change.

Bel is vegan and has a sentiocentric moral scope. She describes herself as spiritual, not religious and, in our conversation below, says “my god is the natural world”.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism podcast.

BelJacobs.com
@bel_jacobs
Bel on FaceBook
Bel on Instagram
The Empathy Project
Islington Climate Centre

Frans is a primatologist and ethologist. He is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory and the author of numerous books including “Chimpanzee Politics”, “Our Inner Ape” and “The Bonobo and the Atheist”. He has featured in TV/radio productions and TED talks viewed by tens of millions of people. His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, and food-sharing. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

While Frans does largely grant moral consideration based on sentience he does still consume some non-mammalian sentient animal products. Frans is an atheist and has a naturalistic worldview. He has written extensively on the evolutionary histories and naturalistic bases for ethics.

Frans’ Sentientist Conversation with me is on the Sentientism YouTube and podcast.

Frans on Wikipedia
Frans on FaceBook
fransdewaal.com

Lee McIntyre is a Philosopher of Science. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy & History of Science at Boston University & an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. Lee is the author of How to Talk to a Science Denier as well as many other books, essays & papers. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, the Boston Globe, the New Statesman & the Humanist.

Lee has a naturalistic worldview and is sympathetic to a sentiocentric moral scope – although is working on applying its practical implications.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

leemcintyrebooks.com
@LeeCMcIntyre

Lawrence “Kris” Parker, better known by his stage name KRS-One, an abbreviation of “Knowledge Reigning Supreme Over Nearly Everyone”, and Teacha, is a rapper and producer. He rose to prominence as part of the hip hop group Boogie Down Productions, which he formed with DJ Scott La Rock in the mid-1980s. KRS-One is best known for his hits “Sound of da Police”, “Love’s Gonna Get’cha (Material Love)”, and “My Philosophy”. Boogie Down Productions received numerous awards and critical acclaim in their early years.
KRS-One is politically active, having started the Stop the Violence Movement. He’s also a vegan activist, as expressed in songs such as “Beef“:

“So just before it dies, it cries
In the slaughterhouse full of germs and flies
Off with the head, they pack it, drain it, and cart it
And there it is, in your local supermarket”

While KRS-One has turned away from traditional religions he doesn’t have a naturalistic worldview. Referring to his book, The Gospel of Hip Hop, he has said: “this book will be a new religion on the earth … I think I have the authority to approach God directly, I don’t have to go through any religion…”

KRS-One on Wikipedia

Emerson is the host of the Counter Apologetics & Walden Pod podcasts. Both are also available on his  @Emerson Green  YouTube channel.

He is an atheist and has a naturalistic worldview. He is “nearly” vegan, so is working on putting his sentiocentric moral scope into practice.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

Emerson’s LinkTree
Emerson’s Blog

Sandra describes herself as a vegan foodie, content writer & editor and wife on a mission to empower others to make small, meaningful decisions and actions that will help make the world a better place. She is co-host of VEG Networking Canada, a place where plant-based and vegan companies connect and collaborate. Sandra is the author of the book “Vegan Marketing Success Stories“.

Sandra does hold some supernatural and spiritual beliefs but is aware of the risks that come from those types of worldviews having experienced, then leaving, the NXIVM cult. Sandra is vegan and has, at least, a sentiocentric moral scope.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism podcast.

sandranomoto.com
@SandraNomoto
Sandra on Instagram
Sandra on YouTube
Sandra on FaceBook
Sandra on LinkedIn

Andy Norman, PhD is the author of “Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think“. His work has appeared in Scientific American, Psychology Today, Skeptic, Free Inquiry & The Humanist. He has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, public radio, The BBC’s Naked Scientist & The Young Turks. He champions the emerging science of mental immunity as the antidote to disinformation, propaganda, hate, and division. He likes to help people develop immunity to bad ideas. Andy directs the Humanism Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University & is the founder of CIRCE, the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative.

He has a naturalistic worldview and does grant moral consideration based on sentience but is still working on removing sentient animal products from his lifestyle.

Find his Sentientist Conversation with me here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on our Podcast.

andynorman.org
@DrAndyNo

Fearne is a television and radio presenter. She has presented television programmes such as Top of the Pops and the Red Nose Day telethons. In 2007, she became the first regular female presenter of the Radio 1 Chart Show, which she co-hosted with Reggie Yates for two years. She went on to present her own Radio 1 show, airing every weekday morning from 2009 to 2015. She joined BBC Radio 2 in 2016. In 2007, Fearne presented The Xtra Factor, an ITV2 spin-off from the main show. She hosted the show for one year before being replaced by Holly Willoughby for the following series. From 2008 to 2018, Fearne appeared as a team captain on the ITV2 comedy panel show Celebrity Juice alongside host Keith Lemon and fellow team captain Holly Willoughby. She quit the series in December 2018 to pursue other projects. In 2018, Fearne began presenting the podcast Happy Place. She has written a number of books, including the “Happy Vegan” cookery book.

Fearne is vegan, implying she has a sentiocentric moral scope. She doesn’t seem to be religious but holds spiritual beliefs that don’t seem to be naturalistically grounded.

Fearne on Wikipedia
HappyPlaceOfficial.co.uk

Henry is the chief features writer for the Financial Times newspaper. He is the author of “How to Love Animals in a Human Shaped World.”

Henry is vegan and is an Anglican Christian.

Find his Sentientist Conversation with me here on YouTube and here on Podcast.

@henrymance

Paige is Communications Director for the streaming platform UnchainedTV. After initially going vegan “for the environment” Jane became an ethical vegan after attending her first vigil with LA Animal Save. Paige later became a Contributor for JaneUnchained News where she reported on vigils, PETA protests, VegFests, book launches, Cubes of Truth & vegan conferences. Paige then became Booker for LunchBreakLIVE, a daily cooking show & Senior Booker for JaneUnChained News. Now, as UnchainedTV Comms Director & co-producer/co-host of the Plant Based In the ‘Burbs show, Paige brings inspiration, humor & humbleness to the kitchen, showing simple swap outs & easy recipes to inspire people to bring more plants on their plates. She also works with Gwenna Hunter who launched the first vegan food bank in Southern California.

Paige is vegan and has a sentiocentric moral scope. She describes herself as “spiritual more than religious”.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism podcast.

@RoachePaige
@PaigeParsonsRoache

Pearl describes herself as “poly-vocational”. She is a foreign relations & management consultant with an MA in International Relations & an MBA in International Business. She is a vegan whole foods advocate via her “Le Twisted Spoon” club. Pearl is also a community organiser and public speaker.

Pearl generally has a naturalistic worldview but does believe there is “someone bigger than myself that clearly loves me”. She is vegan.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

@BruntPearl
pearlbrunt.com

Jim is a theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is a regular broadcaster and presenter of science programmes on BBC radio and television, including The Life Scientific. In 2014, he was named as a RISE (Recognising Inspirational Scientists and Engineers) leader by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). He is not vegetarian or vegan. He was President of the British Humanist Association between January 2013 and January 2016.
@jimalkhalili
jimal-khalili.com

Sean is a theoretical physicist specializing in quantum mechanics, gravity, and cosmology. He is a research professor at the California Institute of Technology Department of Physics. He has been a contributor to the physics blog Cosmic Variance, and has published in scientific journals such as Nature as well as other publications, including The New York Times, Sky & Telescope, and New Scientist. He has appeared on the History Channel’s The Universe, Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, Closer to Truth and Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. Carroll is the author of Spacetime And Geometry, a graduate-level textbook in general relativity, and has also recorded lectures for The Great Courses on cosmology, the physics of time, and the Higgs boson. He is also the author of four popular books. He began a podcast in 2018 called Mindscape, in which he interviews other experts and intellectuals on a variety of science-related topics.

Sean is an atheist and describes himself as a “poetic naturalist”. While he does recognise that needlessly causing suffering to sentient beings is morally negative, he considers it acceptable to kill a sentient being without causing suffering if we think it lacks an ability to plan for or conceive of its own future. He uses this perspective to justify his continued use of animal products although remains open minded on the topic.
Sean on Wikipedia
preposterousuniverse.com
@seanmcarroll

Charles Darwin was a naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.
While he seemed to recognise the moral worth of sentient non-humans, there seems to be little basis to the suggestion that he was vegan or vegetarian, but his great-great grandson is confident he’d be vegan if he was alive today. Darwin had a naturalistic worldview and considered himself agnostic.
He said: “We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention and curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals.”, “There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties … The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind”, and “The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”
Darwin on Wikipedia

Alex O’Connor, also known as CosmicSkeptic, is a YouTuber, writer and podcaster. He speaks and writes regularly about his atheism and used to speak and write about his veganism.

In this video clip he says: “I don’t like calling myself a Humanist for the rather controversial reason of not thinking that we should just put humans at the basis of our ethic and morality… I would call myself a subscriber of… there’s this new term going around… Sentientism” but says “if it wasn’t such a terrible term that just doesn’t roll off the tongue and has no wit about it – then maybe I’d call myself one… there needs to be a better word for that.”

Since then he has resumed his consumption of products made from sentient animals so seems to have withdrawn his practical moral consideration from many sentient beings. He remains opposed to “factory farming”.

@CosmicSkeptic
CosmicSkeptic YouTube

Christopher was an author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books and countless articles (with the New Statesman, The Nation, Vanity Fair and many others) on culture, politics, and literature.

Christopher described himself as an anti-theist who saw all religions as false, harmful and authoritarian. He argued for a naturalistic approach including free expression and scientific discovery and asserted that these provided superior groundings (vs. religion or the supernatural) for ethical codes of conduct. He also advocated separation of church and state. The dictum “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence” has become known as Hitchens’s razor.

Although he seemed to grant moral consideration to non-human sentient beings he continued to consume products made from farming animals. In this Atlantic piece he wrote: “the shepherd protects the sheep and the lambs not for their own good but the better to fleece and then to slay them.”; “when I read of the possible annihilation of the elephant or the whale, or the pouring of oven cleaner or cosmetics into the eyes of live kittens, or the close confinement of pigs and calves in lightless pens, I feel myself confronted by human stupidity, which I recognize as an enemy.” and “Like the quality of mercy, the prompting of compassion is not finite, and can be self-replenishing.”

Christopher Hitchens on Wikipedia
2010 Archive of Hitchensweb

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.

Mark has a naturalistic worldview and a sentiocentric moral scope. However, although his son and daughter in law are vegan, Mark hasn’t yet put this aspect of conceptual Sentientist worldview fully into practice.

Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Mark on Wikipedia
@Mark_Solms

Susan is a writer, lecturer, sceptic, broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known for her book The Meme Machine. She has written or contributed to over 40 books and 60 scholarly articles and is a contributor to The Guardian newspaper in the UK.

She has a naturalistic worldview and is a patron of Humanists UK. In this article, she recognises the strong evidence that many non-human animals are capable of experiencing suffering, but refers to “vegetarians” in the third person, saying “Many people become vegetarians because of the way farm animals are treated”.

Susan on Wikipedia
Susan at Humanists UK
susanblackmore.uk