Sentientism
Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings
People who seem to hold a Sentientist worldview but haven’t explicitly stated their Sentientism.
Jay is an award winning filmmaker, writer, and podcaster. He directed Islam and the Future of Tolerance, a film based around a conversation between Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz. He hosts the Dilemma podcast (some co-hosted with Coleman Hughes), including this Hangout on Sentientism. He has a naturalistic worldview and is vegan. Jay on IMDB […]
Chris is a naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children’s nature series The Really Wild Show from 1986 to 1995. He has also presented the BBC nature series Springwatch, including Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2009. He is a Humanist and announced his veganism during his […]
Brian is Associate Director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University and The Hastings Center, and a Research Fellow in the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. His work is cross-disciplinary, following training in philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, history and sociology of science and medicine, and […]
Diana is an evolutionary psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth. Her field of research includes the study of disgust, human sexuality, and hormones and behaviour. She is involved in the effective altruism and animal welfare movements and identifies as a feminist and a Sentientist. Diana’s 2018 Darwin Day Lecture, hosted by Humanists […]
Rachel is a multi-award winning writer, podcast host and media consultant. Her memoir, “Open – An Uncensored Memoir Of Love, Liberation, And Non-Monogomy” was published in 2022. She is on the advisory board for Sentient Media and the board of directors of Our Hen House. Rachel does nonprofit media consulting, especially for vegan organizations and […]
Jasmin is an animal rights activist, writer, speaker and actress. She is vegan and describes herself as an atheist. She is the co-founder of the non-profit organization Our Hen House and has been the senior editor of VegNews since 2016. She also supports LGBTQ+ and overlapping social justice issues. Jasmin on Wikipedia jasminsinger.com @jasmin_singer
Woody is an actor and playwright. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. He has rejected the Christian faith he was brought up with but it’s unclear whether he still holds some supernatural beliefs. He has said: “I was getting into […]
Lucius is a postdoctoral researcher in moral psychology at Harvard University. His research focuses on investigating how people give to charity, how they morally value animals, and how they think about the future of humanity. He co-founded and directed the Effective Altruism Foundation (Stiftung für Effektiven Altruismus) and remains an advisor for the foundation. He […]
AJ is an American journalist, author, and lecturer best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments, including “The Year of Living Biblically”. He is an editor at large for Esquire and has worked for the Antioch Daily Ledger and Entertainment Weekly. Jacobs is a member of Giving What We Can and pledges 10% of lifelong earnings […]
Carole is a model, actress, singer/songwriter (she wrote “Slow Love” with Prince), writer and animal activist. She has been a contributor for several animal welfare publications including American Dog Magazine, for who she also worked as an investigative journalist. She had an animal welfare column on Newsvine. She is the West Coast Director of the […]
Stevan is a Hungarian-born cognitive scientist based in Montréal, Canada. His research interests are in cognitive science, open access and animal sentience. Stevan is currently Editor-in-Chief of the refereed journal Animal Sentience. He is an activist for non-human animals and is vegan. He has a naturalistic, non-religious worldview. Stevan on Wikipedia SkyWritings @amsciforum
Tom is a musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and political activist (including advocacy for non-human animal rights). He is best known for his tenure with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. Tom is either vegan or vegetarian and seems to be non-religious. Tom on Wikipedia @tmorello
Deborah is a businesswoman who ran a multimillion-pound family holiday business, before completing a management buyout, but is now best known for her appearances on the BBC Two business programme Dragons’ Den. She supports a range of charitable initiatives spanning human and non-human animal causes. She is ~vegan and an atheist. Deborah on Wikipedia @DeborahMeaden
Greta is an environmental activist who has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change. Her views on naturalism/supernaturalism aren’t clear, but she seems committed to a science-led approach. She is vegan. Greta on Wikipedia @GretaThunberg
Joel is Managing Director of the Centre for International and Security Affairs (CISA), a think tank and consulting organisation working to improve international relations and foreign policy capability in Africa. He is vegan and a humanist. @JoelOkwemba joelokwemba.com
Jonathan is a novelist who teaches creative writing at New York University. He is known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Here I Am. His non-fiction books, Eating Animals and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast describe his personal exploration of the ethical and environmental […]
Richard is a writer, psychologist, and animal rights advocate. He coined the term “speciesism” in 1970 and was one of the first to use the term “Sentientism” in a positive light, after it was first used in a derogatory sense by John Rodman in 1977 to criticise Peter Singer and Richard’s thinking. Richard developed the […]
Mary was a novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley (also a suspected Sentientist). Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (another […]
Al-Ma’arri, also known under his Latin name Abulola Moarrensis (973 – 1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. Despite holding a controversially irreligious worldview, he is regarded as one of the greatest classical Arabic poets. He was a robust naturalist and rationalist and attacked the dogmas and practices of many religions. He was […]
Brigid was a novelist, critic, and campaigner for social reforms, including the rights of authors and animal rights. Her 1965 Sunday Times article is credited by psychologist Richard D. Ryder (another Sentientist) with having triggered the formation of the animal rights movement in England. Brigid was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto and […]
Michael is an academic specialising in the philosophy of mind from a naturalistic perspective and in comparative consciousness. He is professor emeritus of Biomedical Sciences, Quillen College of Medicine. Michael has written on sentience as the foundation of animal rights and about the sentience of fish and invertebrates. Michael’s research papers
Leilani is a professional racing driver and an activist for animal and environmental causes. She has been vegan since 2011 and seems to have a naturalistic, non-religious worldview. Leilani on Wikipedia @LeilaniMunter Leilani on Instagram
Ricky is a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. He is an advocate for animal rights and for atheism, secularism and humanism. He is vegan. He has said “It’s awful to think of people eating dogs, but some people eat pork. I don’t, but some people do. And a pig is just like a dog, […]
Madelaine is an actress and YouTuber. She is a vegan and is non-religious. Madelaine on Wikipedia @madelainepetsch
Natalie is an actress, filmmaker and activist. She is vegan. She has said “Three times a day I remind myself that I value life and do not want to cause pain to or kill other living beings.” Her views on naturalism are unclear. While culturally Jewish, when asked about the afterlife she has said “I […]
Peter is an actor, producer and animal rights activist. He is an atheist (lapsed Catholic) and a vegan. While working on the “Face Your Food” film, he said: “The images you’re about to see might make you want to turn away, but this is what you pay for every time you buy meat, eggs, and […]
Élisée was a renowned French geographer, writer and anarchist. He was an atheist and an ethical vegetarian. He said “The horse and the cow, the rabbit and the cat, the deer and the hare, the pheasant and the lark, please us better as friends than as meat.” Élisée on Wikipedia
Benedict is an actor. He is vegan and, as someone who is “at least philosophically” Buddhist, it is unclear whether he holds supernatural beliefs. He has said “No, I’m quite a rationalist. I’m not superstitious. I think life is too full of natural wonders and logical complexities to worry about illogical things.” Benedict on Wikipedia
Liz is an activist who co-founded and runs the Vegan Advocacy Initiative. She is vegan and a secular humanist. @Lizveg
Angela is a political activist, philosopher, academic professor and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She is the […]
Michaela is an actress, screenwriter, director, producer, and singer, best known for creating and starring in “Chewing Gum” and “I May Destroy You”. She is vegan and an atheist (ex-Pentecostal Christian). Michaela on Wikipedia @MichaelaCoel
Robin is a radio personality, author, and actress. She is vegan (she has written a book about her vegan diet) and an atheist. Robin on Wikipedia @rqui
Bryan is a singer, guitarist, composer, record producer, photographer, philanthropist, and activist. He has been vegan since 1989 and is an atheist. Bryan on Wikipedia @bryanadams
Elliot is an actor and producer. He is vegan and an atheist. Elliot on religion: “Religion has always been used for beautiful things, and also as a way to justify discrimination—whether it’s gender, or race, or the LGBT community, or what have you. Personally, I’m an atheist, so I just have no time for it.” […]
Hemant is an author, blogger, and atheist activist. He is either vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons. Hemant on Wikipedia @hemantmehta
Yuval is a public intellectual, a historian and a professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is vegan and an atheist (secular Jewish). He has said: “Industrial farming is one of the worst crimes in history” and called “[t]he fate of industrially farmed animals […] one of the most […]
Vivienne is a fashion designer and businesswoman. She is an atheist and either vegetarian or vegan. Vivienne on Wikipedia @FollowWestwood
Joaquin is an actor, environmentalist, animal rights activist, and producer. He is vegan and an atheist. Joaquin on Wikipedia
Rooney is an actress, philanthropist and founder of a vegan clothing business. She is vegan and has been reported to be an atheist. Rooney on Wikipedia
Mary was a writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. She was an advocate of non-human animal ethics and was an inspiration for the satire “A Vindication Of The Rights Of Brutes” that argued if women and men can have rights, then why not non-human animals. She was a rationalist and described herself as agnostic […]