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!
Between 1999 and 2014, Bel was Style Editor for Metro. The fall of Rana Plaza in 2013 forced a re-assessment; today, she is a writer, speaker and activist with a focus on animal rights, the climate emergency and the toxic fashion system. Bel has taken part in and moderated numerous panels for brands and organisations and has been interviewed about her work in activism, alternative systems in fashion and culture change.
Bel is vegan and has a sentiocentric moral scope. She describes herself as spiritual, not religious and, in our conversation below, says “my god is the natural world”.
Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism podcast.
BelJacobs.com
@bel_jacobs
Bel on FaceBook
Bel on Instagram
The Empathy Project
Islington Climate Centre
Paige is Communications Director for the streaming platform UnchainedTV. After initially going vegan “for the environment” Jane became an ethical vegan after attending her first vigil with LA Animal Save. Paige later became a Contributor for JaneUnchained News where she reported on vigils, PETA protests, VegFests, book launches, Cubes of Truth & vegan conferences. Paige then became Booker for LunchBreakLIVE, a daily cooking show & Senior Booker for JaneUnChained News. Now, as UnchainedTV Comms Director & co-producer/co-host of the Plant Based In the ‘Burbs show, Paige brings inspiration, humor & humbleness to the kitchen, showing simple swap outs & easy recipes to inspire people to bring more plants on their plates. She also works with Gwenna Hunter who launched the first vegan food bank in Southern California.
Paige is vegan and has a sentiocentric moral scope. She describes herself as “spiritual more than religious”.
Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism podcast.
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 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
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 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 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 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 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.