We are Sentientists
Why are these people considered ‘nearly’ sentientist?
These are people who have been nominated as a Suspected Sentientist, but don’t seem to be Sentientist (yet). This is either because they don’t seem to have a naturalistic worldview (committed to evidence and reason, rejecting supernatural beliefs) or because they don’t seem to grant meaningful moral consideration to all sentient beings.
Thank you for nominating people. If you have further input I’d love to hear it in the comments for each person. If you are one of these people, feel free to correct things and post yourself on our Wall of Sentientists!
Paul Bloom
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.
Sandra Nomoto
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
Jackson
Adrian Tchaikovsky
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.
Emerson Green
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.
Pearl Monique Cole Brunt
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.
Christopher Hitchens
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
Greg Graffin
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.
Mark Solms
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!
Fearne Cotton
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.
and stay up to date
Latest work
Is Your Suffering An Illusion? – Philosopher Keith Frankish on Sentientism Ep: 234
In the classroom!
Just How Big Should “The Moral Circle” Be? – Jeff Sebo on Sentientism Ep: 229
