Differences don’t matter, only sentience does.

Curiosity helped me the most. Knowledge fills you up. Observing something is a pleasure, deducing something else from it is another. I do Science just for the sake of it – I do research, publish and teach without being paid affiliated with academics, and it just makes sense for me.

Arpad Lorberer

I believe that suffering experienced by sentient beings is the greatest “evil” in this world, and I’m committed to doing everything I can to reduce it.

If an organism seeks to avoid death and can suffer pain–even if not nerve-based as that which we are accustomed to–it is sentient and should be accorded rights. Both nonhuman animals as well as other intelligences, even if their origin may have been artificial.

“I’m a Sentientist because all suffering matters morally and because evidence and reason are the only ways to really understand our world.”

Find our first Sentientist conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast. Find our second Sentientist conversation, focusing on Peter’s speaking tour of China and his book “Consider The Turkey” here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.

Peter is often referred to as the “world’s most influential living philosopher.” He was the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secular, naturalistic, utilitarian perspective. He wrote the books “Animal Liberation”, Why Vegan? and “Animal Liberation Now!” (launched on the same day as our first Sentientism episode together!), in which he argues against speciesism and for a shift to plant-based food systems and veganism. He also wrote the essay “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” and the books “The Life You Can Save” & “The Most Good You Can Do” which argue for effective altruism – using evidence & reasoning to do the most good we can for all sentient beings both human and not.

In 2004 Peter was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. In 2005, the Sydney Morning Herald placed him among Australia’s ten most influential public intellectuals. Singer is a cofounder of Animals Australia & the founder of The Life You Can Save. In 2021 he received the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. Peter donated the $1 million prize money to the most effective organizations working to assist people in extreme poverty and to reduce the suffering of animals in factory farms.

Peter has a sentiocentric moral scope. He is an atheist and has a naturalistic worldview.

@Peter-Singer on BlueSky
Peter on Instagram
Petersinger.info (including PeterSinger.ai)
Peter’s Bold Reasoning Substack
Peter and Kasia de Lazari Radek’s Lives Well Lived Podcast
Peter on Wikipedia

Sentientism- not only feels right, but actually is one of the most reasonable and convincing concepts I have ever come across

Alex Egorov

A Bill of Rights for the Age of Artificial Intelligence – We should be concerned about the rights of all sentients as an unprecedented diversity of minds emerges

@geochurch

George Church

I like to learn about philosophy and hopefully teach it to people.

@Karrrisa_TD

Compassion for and kindness to every sentient creature.

Shaya Ish-Shalom

For me, it is an evolutionary step as a human to recognise the ‘non-human animal’ as sentient with individuality – and not objects to be commodified by us.

@writers_accord
Jules’ book, “I, Animal: Examining the Human – Animal Divide”.

Watch Walter’s first Sentientist Conversation with me here and his second here (focused on “A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness”) or listen to the podcast versions (episodes 48 and 158) on Apple here or on other platforms here. Find his third Sentientism Conversation, along with his partner Heather Browning, on the Sentientism YouTube here and here on the Sentientism podcast.

Walter is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Philosophy at the University of Reading and an external member of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He works primarily in and at the intersections of (i) the Philosophy of Cognitive and Biological Sciences, (ii) the Philosophy of Mind, and (iii) Applied Ethics. Much of Walter’s recent writing has been on animal minds, welfare, and ethics, as well as evolution. His first monograph A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness integrating this research was published with Routledge. His partner Heather Browning is also a philosopher and a previous Sentientism guest. They recently published their first joint book What Are Zoos For?

Water is vegan and has a sentiocentric moral scope. He has a naturalistic worldview.

@wrwveit
walterveit.com

The consideration of others not based on species is virtuous

@ZCelmer

“Suffering matters, no matter who experiences it. Sentientism is the label that captures this world view.”

Michael Dello-Iacovo (michaeldello.com​ and @MichaelDello​) is a PhD candidate in space science, looking at off-Earth exploration, mining & asteroid impact risk. Michael hosts the Morality is Hard podcast where he examines ethical questions and argues that everyday ethical choices are harder than we think they are. He is currently on the New South Wales state committee for the Animal Justice Party, sits on the national policy committee and is a committee member of the party’s youth wing. Michael has dedicated his life to giving back and making the world a better place for all. To that end, in 2016 he pledged to donate all of his income above $45,000 each year to the most effective charities and causes, a pledge which he will uphold with his parliamentary income, if elected. Michael was previously the CEO of Effective Altruism Australia.

Michael’s Sentientist Conversation with me on the Sentientism YouTube and Podcast
@MichaelDello
Michael Dello

“‘May all that have life be delivered from suffering.” (Gautama Buddha) Let’s help other creatures, not harm them. Any civilisation worthy of the name will be vegan. Our goal should be the well-being of all sentience.”

David is a philosopher who co-founded the World Transhumanist Association, now rebranded as Humanity+, with Nick Bostrum. David writes on a range of transhumanist topics and what he calls the “hedonistic imperative”, a moral obligation to work towards the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His self-published internet manifesto, The Hedonistic Imperative, outlines how pharmacology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and neurosurgery could converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience from human and non-human life, replacing suffering with “gradients of bliss”. David calls this the “abolitionist project”.

@webmasterdave
The Hedonistic Imperative (HedWeb)
David on Wikipedia

It’s a perfect description of my ethical and moral approach to life.

Sentience matters for moral consideration. Evidence, Reason, Universalism.

I believe in reason and am an animal

@UgandaCenter

Compassion

I realised it’s not just humans, other beings are individuals too. They think, they feel, they have understanding.
@whynotvegan2

I’ve considered myself a secular Humanist for the past 35 years or so, but at an even younger age, before the double digits, I felt that the injustices to other sentient beings, for example the suffering of laboratory animals for the benefit of humans and the rape of rain forests and indigenous peoples, was and still is a terribly myopic view of our role as part of life on Earth, and a completely unfair imbalance in favor of one species, or nation, at the detriment to all other sentients. I feel it’s natural that these two philosophies are part of one way.

No sentient being is above others. I have no right to persecute other beings for food, clothing or vanity. I have freed myself from years of peer pressure, trying to make me do what is wrong.

@vinwelly

Sentientism, like veganism for me, is very much a guiding principle in life. It came to me as a revelation in my late teens, that life choices held such hypocrisy. I found myself in turmoil over consuming some animals, whilst protecting others. I began to question the disparity around the world, the human injustice & wanton exploitation of the natural world. I realised I was a believer in sentientism fundamentally…that I was seeking to make decisions based on best insights into science, evidence, reason and supported with a compassionate disposition. It came natural to me, as I chose veganism. Understanding that all life has an innate right to exist..that it is not our place to attribute a ‘scale of value’ to beings, with humankind at the peak. Sentientism is the ultimate liberation from the man-made tyranny of rigid belief systems. It is simply ‘freedom’.

@meldawson6

I’m a sentientist because i cannot justify ethical isolationism.
@christofglass

Ethics demand that the strong inflict no harm on those who feel pain and fear. Humans are animals, too.

I don’t believe humans are qualitatively more special than other creatures, except insomuch as we flatter ourselves.