Michael is head of philosophy at the University of Liverpool. His current work spans transhumanism, death & meaning. He has written a vast range of topics, including on whether non-human animals can have meaningful lives & "What It Is Like to Be a Bot". He says of his work: "As a philosopher, I am a generalist, which is a nice way of saying that I have done many different things & I am not really an expert on anything in particular."
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:42 Michael's Intro
- What it means to be human, to live a good life, a meaningful life
- Transhumanism & human enhancement
- Meaning & life & death
- When dealing with foundational, broad questions: "It is very difficult to be precise... I hardly ever feel that 'now I've got it'"
06:06 What's Real?
- "It's much easier to point at something & disuss whether that is real"
- "If you can name something then in some sense it must be real"
- Raised #Christian & sent to Sunday school & Bible classes & regular confessions to the village priest
- "I sort of believed there was a god when I was little"
- A god watching me "a means of controlling me... Big Brother in heaven... it was just oppressive... a punishing god, a critical god"
- "I didn't feel the presence... I just believed that there was something because I was told there was something"
- "Very quickly I dropped my religious beliefs... as soon as I started to think for myself I became an #atheist"
- "It just faded away... it was always superficial"
- "Some people take me for a Christian because I share some of the intuitions religious believers have"
- "I'm not entirely comfortable with calling myself a naturalist although I don't believe in anything supernatural"
- "Naturalism is also very programmatic & ideological"
- "There are a lot of things in this world that we cannot understand...& some naturalists are very confident that we can understand everything & that's there's no mystery... there is a lot of mystery."
- Max More's #transhumanism ... pits science vs. religion
- Origins of the universe & life & consciousness "we don't know!" Science might figure it out - it might not
- "... whatever there is is part of nature"
- Over-confidence vs. humility
- The subjective & the objective
- Plato & Parmenides: "being is more real than becoming"... "but we live in a world of becoming... how can that be less real?"
- The "normative use of reality"... to "declare something else as not real... a term to deny something else its reality"
- The denial of animal suffering "not so common any more" & the #cartesian model
- "If you see an animal in pain you know it is in pain... it takes a lot of willful blindness not to acknowledge..."
- "One of the reasons... why animals could not possibly feel any pain... because it would then be far too horrible how we treat animals... god wouldn't allow it!"
- "If we assume the world is good & we see all the apparent suffering... then it cannot be... A moral reason behind denying the suffering of animals"
- JW "An echo of a religious mode of thought that's then re-built in a humanist mode of thought"
- "If we have evolved naturally... there's no reason to assume our brains are capable of understanding the universe... what possible use can it have?"
- "A naturalistic perspective should actually teach us humility"
29:03 What Matters?

...and much more. Full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on FaceBook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Come join us there!