Joey (https://josephtuminello.academia.edu/) is asst. professor of philosophy at McNeese State Uni & program coordinator for the nonprofits Farm Forward & Better Food Foundation (See also Default Veg). His research covers philosophies of food, medicine, animals & environment. He teaches biomedical ethics & sections of ethical theory & existentialism.
In these Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is also here on YouTube (subscribe there too!).
We discuss (full show notes are on YouTube and Sentientism.info):
- Growing up in a Catholic household in Louisiana
- "Who's your mama, are you Catholic & can you make a roux?"
- Questioning religion early on. Developing scepticism. Understanding mechanisms of control in religion & beyond
- Hard-core atheist phase & studying philosophy
- Non-theism & atheism. Tempered with humility & openness
- "Open-mindedness & scepticism go hand in hand"
- Deciding not to get confirmed
- Attending Catholic high school that didn't welcome questioning & experiencing social adversity
- Social justice & hateful interpretations of some religions (e.g. Westboro Baptist Church)
- Using religious arguments to justify discriminations
- Analytic philosophy & challenging religious inconsistencies
- "Ambiguity & tension is part of the human experience"
- Humility & open-mindedness needs to be at the core of naturalism
- The arrogance in "angry atheism"
- Getting comfortable not knowing. With-holding belief until there's evidence
- Meta-physics & ethics
- "We don't have access to the ultimate nature of reality" but there are still things we can meaningfully say about reality
- Experiences are happening. Phenomenology, directed consciousness & the self/non-self
- Nagel's "What is it like to be a bat?"
- Consciousness, interests that matter and ethics (caring about the interests of others)
- Lacking a justification for the exploitation or oppression of others, human or not
- The "Embrace The Void" podcast with Joey's friend Aaron
- Pre-human morality
- Is the choice to be moral simply the choice to care about the perspectives of others
- Moral inter-subjectivism. There are moral truths independent of each mind but they do require an interface between subjects
- Sentient beings do matter morally, but is sentience the only thing that matters? Is cutting down a tree wrong if it has no impact on sentients?
- The risk of anthropocentrism, because humans are defining & assessing sentience. But sentience existed long before & far beyond humans
- And much more... see YouTube.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "wall" https://sentientism.info/wall/ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.
Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Main one is here on FaceBook.
Thanks to Graham.