Why are worldviews, and Sentientism in particular, worth focusing on?

Worldviews underpin every decision we take whether as an individual or as a group or institution. They might seem theoretical or abstract, something that sits unconsciously and unexamined in the background, but how we try to understand reality and who we care about guides every choice we make, from what (or who) to have for lunch through to United Nations policy.

Arguably every human-caused problem we face today is either because of ethical mistakes, mistakes of understanding or a combination of the two. We have a long, painful history of either excluding beings that shouldn’t be excluded from moral consideration, being wrong about reality, or both. Very often our ethical mistakes and our factual errors feed off and motivate each other too.
So on the factual front the Sentientism worldview is important because basing our credences and beliefs on good quality evidence and reasoning makes it more likely we will understand reality well. When it comes to our moral scope – having compassion for every sentient being capable of suffering or flourishing means we won’t exclude the perspectives, interests or needs of any being that we could potentially harm or benefit.

Adopting a sentientist worldview committed to “evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings” by no means guarantees good outcomes and still leaves many important questions open, but it’s likely to improve every decision we take, in any domain, compared with worldviews that exclude some sentient beings or base their beliefs on dogma, revelation or fideism.
You can explore some of the potential practical implications of the Sentientism worldview in our “In Action” sections. These will always be works in progress so please get in touch or join our communities to share your ideas for improvements and new areas to consider.