You'll find a number of articles about sentientism on this site and many more that relate to sentientism on our Sub-Reddit. The ones below have actually been published.
If you're in publishing and would be interested in a piece about sentientism, or even re-publishing one of these, please get in touch using our contact form on the right of this page or via @Sentientism.
If you're a writer (or even if you're not) - why not write something about sentientism? We'd love to help and will happily share your work. Please get in touch.
Humanism Needs an upgrade: The Philosophy that Could Save the World
There's an updated version of this article here.
The Areo team also run the Two for Tea podcast. You can hear their episode on Sentientism here.
Areo is an opinion and analysis digital magazine focused on current affairs — in particular: humanism, reason, science, politics, culture and human rights. Areo, named after Milton’s speech in defence of freedom of speech, Areopagitica, publishes thoughtful essays from a variety of perspectives compatible with broadly liberal and humanist values. It places particular priority on evidence and reason-centered pieces.
A New Dimension for Humanism?
This article , co-authored with Amy Halpern-Laff, is targeted at a secular Humanist audience.
The Humanist is the online and magazine publication of the American Humanist Association. The AHA describes Humanism as "a nontheistic worldview with ethical values informed by scientific knowledge and driven by a desire to meet the needs of people in the here and now. At the foundation of those values is an affirmation of the dignity of every human being."
Non-human sentient beings are not (yet) mentioned in their definition of Humanism. In that respect, the AHA is lagging behind both Humanists UK and Humanists International.
Humanism Needs An Upgrade: Is Sentientism The Philosophy That Could Save The World?
This is an updated version of the Areo piece above and is also adapted for a more clearly secular humanist audience. There's also an updated version of this article here.
Free Inquiry is published by the Center for Inquiry, a non-profit which strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.
From Human Rights to Sentient Rights: The Next Generation of Rights Thinking
There is an updated version of this article here.
Sentient Media is a nonprofit media organization working to create transparency around animal rights and the planetary crisis created by global factory farming. They report on animal welfare issues and strive to highlight the many intersections among human and animal lives and the world in which we live. Their primary mission is to increase public awareness of key issues that matter to all of us: the welfare of sentient beings, the health of our planet, and the health and longevity of our human selves.
From Human rights to sentient rights: the next generation of rights thinking
This is a very similar piece to the Sentient Media one above. There are also versions in Arabic and Spanish. There is an updated version of this article here.
OpenGlobalRights believes that human rights work best when its many actors converse, learn, and innovate across geographic, linguistic, and disciplinary lines. OpenGlobalRights gathers those voices, providing a space where different ideas and experiences enrich our understanding of what human rights are and what they can be in the work of creating a more just and sustainable world.
Why Should We Care About the Environment?
An updated version of this article is here. The piece sets out different reasons we might care about the environment, considering anthropocentrism, sentiocentrism (and sentientism), biocentrism and ecoentrism.
Greeneralia is focused on environmental and existential risks. It is run by the Green Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom but is cross-party.
Sentientism, by Richard Ryder. This essay was published in "The Great Ape Project" in 1993. Richard coined the term speciesism in 1970. Richard still considers himself a sentientist today. He has also developed painism, a sub-set of the sentientist worldview that focuses on the moral importance of pain over that of positive experiences.
The term sentientism was developed in a naturalistic context - using evidence and reason to infer sentience and to accord moral consideration to sentients. More recently, it has been re-cast to include a wider naturalistic commitment - using evidence and reason in all domains.
This page will let you know what we’ve been up to but I wanted to share a few highlights:
Criticism, suggestions, offers of help and amplification / sharing are always welcome. Thanks so much for all the help so far and to those who’ve been doing their own things to develop our collective Sentientism project – working to normalise “evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings”. A special thanks to Denise and Tarabella who have found our Patreon page and are contributing to our production costs.
The numbers below should give some indication of how many of the remaining ~7.7 billion humans (let alone the powerful AIs) we have yet to persuade 😊. As ever, you and friends are very welcome in any of our online groups. They’re open to anyone interested, not just sentients who have a Sentientist worldview:
Raising Awareness:
Communities (a big thank you to the volunteers that set up and run each of these):
Walls:
Please forward this on to others who might find the Sentientism worldview interesting! They can sign up for updates at the bottom of Sentientism.info.
I hope you and yours are well. Here’s to a more compassionate, thoughtful world,
Jamie.
Find our Sentientist conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.
Peter is often referred to as the “world’s most influential living philosopher.” He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secular, naturalistic, utilitarian perspective. He wrote the books "Animal Liberation", Why Vegan? and "Animal Liberation Now!" (launched on the same day as our Sentientism episode - join his speaking tour here!), in which he argues against speciesism and for a shift to plant-based food systems and veganism. He also wrote the essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" and the books "The Life You Can Save" & "The Most Good You Can Do" which argue for effective altruism - using evidence & reasoning to do the most good we can for all sentient beings both human and not.
In 2004 Peter was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. In 2005, the Sydney Morning Herald placed him among Australia's ten most influential public intellectuals. Singer is a cofounder of Animals Australia & the founder of The Life You Can Save. In 2021 he received the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. Peter donated the $1 million prize money to the most effective organizations working to assist people in extreme poverty and to reduce the suffering of animals in factory farms.
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 audio is on our Podcast here on Apple & here on all the other platforms.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
06:12 What's Real?
26:25 What Matters?
38:58 Who Matters?
01:10:05 How Can We Make A Better Future?
Following Peter:
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info.
Join our “I’m a Sentientist” wall using this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on Facebook.
Thanks to Graham for the post-production and to Tarabella and Denise for helping to fund this episode via our Sentientism Patreon.
Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism podcast and here on the Sentientism YouTube.
Michael is head of philosophy at the University of Liverpool. His current work spans transhumanism, death and meaning. He has written on whether non-human animals can have meaningful lives and What It Is Like to Be a Bot. He says of his work: “As a philosopher, I am a generalist, which is a nice way of saying that I have done many different things and I am not really an expert on anything in particular. Most people would probably tag me as an ethicist, but this is only true in a very broad sense. Figuring out what is right and what is wrong, permissible or impermissible, does not hold much interest for me. It seems to me that when people are debating these questions they are actually arguing about something else, namely who we want to be and in what kind of world we want to live. For me, doing philosophy is ultimately a sustained attempt to get to grips with this “deeply puzzling world” (to borrow an expression of Mary Midgley’s), to understand it and to understand our place in it. Philosophy is not business; it’s personal, more akin to therapy than to science. It’s about finding out what is actually going on and what we are doing here. Can philosophy provide an answer to these questions? I don’t know. All we can do is keep on trying. Perhaps what matters is not that we find an answer, but that we keep the question alive.”
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 audio is on our Podcast here on Apple & here on all the other platforms.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:42 Michael's Intro
06:06 What's Real?
29:03 What Matters?
45:35 Who Matters?
01:26:44 How Can We Make a Better Future?
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info.
Join our “I’m a Sentientist” wall using this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on Facebook.
Thanks to Graham for the post-production and to Tarabella and Denise for helping to fund this episode via our Sentientism Patreon.