Sentientism in action
Language plays a powerful role in how we think and act. To help us move towards a more sentientist world, we might want to start using more sentientist language. In particular, that includes language that doesn’t trap us into thinking in anthropocentric or speciesist ways that narrow our moral circle to focus on humans or even just in-group humans.
This page sets out some suggestions about the sort of sentientist language we might want to adopt. I’d love to know what you think – new terms, better terms… Please comment below or join the discussion in one of our online communities. Of course, these specific words are only part of the wider stories and narratives that shape and are shaped by our beliefs and values.
Animals and Media and UPF’s Center for Animal Ethics both have some great guidance about how we can help better represent the interests of all sentient beings in our media and daily language. Catia Faria and Núria Almiron’s (coords) book, Speciesism and Language (introduced here) sets out some deeper academic perspectives. Sentient‘s Alien Journalist Dictionary also has some powerful ideas about how we could use language more productively and inclusively.
| Default Language | Sentientist Language |
|---|---|
| — | |
| Describing non-human sentient beings as objects: e.g. “it”. | Describing sentient beings as subjects: e.g. “they” or “them”. |
| — | |
| Using the term “animal” or the names of species (e.g. pig, cow) in a pejorative way. | Not doing this. |
| — | |
| Using terms or phrases that imply harming or killing sentient beings is morally acceptable. | Not doing this. |
| — | |
| Describing “humans” as being distinct from “animals”. | Not doing this. For example, by referring to “non-human animals” and making it clear that humans are animals too. |
| — | |
| Human (adjective) – being related to or belonging to a human. | Sentient (adjective) – the capacity to have experiences, for example suffering or flourishing. |
| — | |
| Human (noun) – a member of the species homo sapiens. | Sentient (noun) – a sentient being. |
| — | |
| Humanity / humankind – humans in general. | Sentientity / Sentientkind – sentients in general. |
| — | |
| Humane – showing kindness, care and sympathy towards others. Implies these are uniquely human characteristics when they are widely prevalent in other sentients. Often used to describe actions that are not “humane”, for example “humane slaughter”. | Compassionate – actions and intentions that demonstrate compassion. Compassion is a feeling of sympathy and sadness, in one sentient, for the suffering of another along with a desire to alleviate that suffering. Arguably extensible to identifying with and wishing for positive experiences in other sentients, not just the alleviation of suffering. Alternatively senscient (thanks @Beornnmccarthy) or sentane? |
| — | |
| Humanitarian – improving human lives and reducing human suffering. | Sentientarian – improving sentient lives and reducing sentient suffering. |
| — | |
| Democracy – a form of government based on rule by the people. | Sentocracy or Sentiocracy – a form of government based on rule by sentient beings. |
| — | |
| Homicide – intentional killing of a human. | Senticide – intentional killing of a sentient. See this paper for an example of work on extending criminology to include crimes against non-human sentients. A narrower proposed term for the killing of non-human animals by humans is theriocide. That linked paper also mentions “zoocide” and “animalicide”. |
| — | |
| Anthropomorphism – the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. Often on the assumption that human traits are what matters morally. | Sentiomorphism – attributing sentience to entities based on evidence of their sentience. Because sentience is what matters morally. |
| — | |
| Dehumanise – to deny the full humanness of a human or to make someone think of some humans (including themselves) as less valuable than humans. | Desentientise – denying, ignoring or devaluing the sentience of a sentient being, for example by assigning them to a category where their sentience is deemed irrelevant (e.g. farmed animal). (Thanks @JosephDavidHill for the suggestion) Other alternatives include objectify, de-subjectivise, dementalize, deanimalise. |
| — | |
| Humanism – Naturalistic worldview that grants moral consideration to all humans and (sometimes) has a concern for “other sentient animals”. | Sentientism – Naturalistic worldview that grants moral consideration to all sentients. |
| — | — |
| Substratism – Negatively discriminating against a sentient being because of its substrate. In this context a substrate is the material the being’s sentience “runs on”. The sentient beings we’re aware of today have biological substrates, but many believe other substrates (silicon-based, other biologies) might be possible. | |
| — | — |
| Casual Greetings | Sent / Sents – A shortened version of “sentient” used as a casual form of address, as in “Hi sent!” or “How’s it going, sents?” Suggested semi-seriously by Sentientist author and podcast guest AJ Jacobs. This hasn’t quite worked its way into popular usage… yet. |
| — | — |
| Words normally reserved for human sentients | Extend them to apply to all sentient beings, for example: oppression, vulnerability, violence, murder, war, harm, health, needs, interests, solidarity, justice, cosmopolitanism, democracy, person, community, ethics, social justice, morality, freedom, autonomy, rights, liberalism, voice, relations, sustainability, care, compassion… |
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