Close

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley was one of the major English romantic poets. He was a naturalistic atheist per his pamphlet “The Necessity of Atheism” and an advocate of non-violent resistance.
Shelly was an ethical vegan (then called vegetarian). His compassion for sentient beings led him to write: “If the use of animal food be, in consequence, subversive to the peace of human society, how unwarrantable is the injustice and the barbarity which is exercised toward these miserable victims. They are called into existence by human artifice that they may drag out a short and miserable existence of slavery and disease, that their bodies may be mutilated, their social feelings outraged. It were much better that a sentient being should never have existed, than that it should have existed only to endure unmitigated misery”; “Never again may blood of bird or beast/ Stain with its venomous stream a human feast,/ To the pure skies in accusation steaming”; and “It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.”
Shelley on Wikipedia

Latest work

Upper body shot of Joan Slonczewski sitting in a desk chair in an office, smiling towards the camera. Pin-board and computer screen in the background.

MurderBot, Non-violent Protest & Microbial Minds

Joan Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer. A Sentientism worldview conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
More

MurderBot, Non-violent Protest & Microbial Minds

Joan Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer. A Sentientism worldview conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
More

Teaching Compassion

Michelle St. John is founder and director of VinE (Veganism in Education). Heather Marshall is a Senior Lecturer and Religious Education PGCE Course Leader at Edge Hill University. A Sentientism conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
More

Sentientism Meet-Up 25 Oct 2025 (and some other updates)

An invitation to the second ever Sentientism meetup and some updates about our education work and a potential book!
More

Join our mailing list and stay up to date

Sentientism

Handcrafted with ♥ by Cage Undefined