Top Tweets for #Sentiocentrism
Two of the most important yet most neglected philosophical questions - and their obvious answers:
1) Moral scope? At least all sentient beings #sentiocentrism
2) Obligation toward those morally included? At least don’t needlessly harm / exploit / kill them #nonmaleficence.
Nearly all of us already care about some non-human sentient beings.
The simple yet radical challenge is for us to care about all of them.
We've already broken #anthropocentrism. Now we just need to be consistent about our #sentiocentrism. Why not start today?! 🥰
One of the most tragic ways humans make space for the exclusion of sentient beings from moral consideration & compassion is by jumping straight from #anthropocentrism to #biocentrism or #ecocentrism… skipping #sentiocentrism completely 😔
Ways #Sentientism isn't #Anthropocentric:
1) Sentience predates humanity by many millions of years
2) Humans are a vanishingly tiny % of all sentient beings
3) Sentience insists we consider the perspective of the sentient other, whether they're human or not.
#Sentiocentrism
Working on episode 176. Nearly all humans already go beyond #anthropocentrism. But there are still so many psych/social barriers to work through re: #sentiocentrism: dog breeds... companions... "factory" vs. "family" farmed... flesh vs. exploitation... liminal... free-ranging...
Many apparent critics of #sentiocentrism aren't actually criticising it.
Instead, they're claiming that entities not typically thought of as sentient (e.g. plants, funghi, ecosystems, electrons, AI) should matter morally because they are sentient.
That's still sentiocentrism.
@ThePanpsycast Thanks!
Martha's capabilities approach is a powerful way of putting #sentiocentrism into practice (all sentient beings matter).
But we also need good epistemology. For example re: the sentience & flourishing & capabilities of fishes 🐟 @Jonathanpb1959.
Hence @sentientism
Implications of our moral scope choices:
#Anthropocentrism 🧍: Kicking puppies is fine
#Sentiocentrism 🐟: Boycott animal agriculture
#Biocentrism 🌳: Boycott animal agriculture
#Ecocentrism 🏔️: Boycott animal agriculture
Take your pick! 💚
How to justify #sentient animal exploitation:
#Theocentrism: God says!
#Anthropocentrism: Only humans matter
#Sentiocentrism: But deny animal sentience 🤯
#Biocentrism: Plants matter too!
#Ecocentrism: "It's the circle of life 🎶"
Instead - all the above should condemn it.
My view:
- #Theocentrism: gods don't exist
- #Anthropocentrism: excludes nearly all sentients!
- #Sentiocentrism: yep - every experiencing being matters 💚
- #Biocentrism & #Ecocentrism: non-sentient entities can't suffer or flourish but can have important instrumental value.
Should #OneHealth & #OneWelfare allow us to be killed to make products?
The dangers of jumping from #anthropocentrism to #ecocentrism (often just more anthropocentrism) instead of #sentiocentrism.
Thanks @ninajamal10 @ClaudiaFTowne @TheAnimalTurn 💚
https://t.co/okRUQiIP2j
#Sentiocentrism's focus on #sentience as a moral qualifier (rather than souls, spirits, divine dominions or divine commands) makes it a very comfortable match with naturalistic epistemology.
Hence #Sentientism: "Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings".
Consider:
- #Anthropocentrism
- #Sentiocentrism
- #Biocentrism
- #Ecocentrism
If we find ourselves skipping quickly from anthropocentrism on to bio & ecocentrism - maybe that's because we don't want to face the radical implications of extending consideration to all sentients?
Yep. An urgent example: #anthropocentrism vs. #sentiocentrism.
Most philosophers (& humans) unthinkingly accept our cultural default of anthropocentrism so deeply that they don't even consider it might be a horrific mistake that excludes nearly all suffering, #sentient beings.
Here are two ways of justifying the exclusion of non-human animals from moral consideration:
1) They don't have souls
2) They're not sentient
Neither belief is consistent with a naturalistic worldview.
That's why we need both #naturalism & #sentiocentrism = #Sentientism
To needlessly harm a non-human animal:
- You can just not care about their suffering (ethics).
- Or you can believe they can't suffer (epistemology).
That's why we need #naturalism & #sentiocentrism.
Un-founded beliefs can lead even compassionate people to do terrible things.
With respect to #Sentientism (#naturalism & #sentiocentrism) it seems philosophers are doing much better on the naturalism than they are on the sentiocentrism...
(Rejecting theism & omnivorism 🌱 are by no means perfect tests of naturalism and sentiocentrism - but indicative?)
#Naturalism bases belief on reality (understood imperfectly via evidence & reasoning).
#Sentiocentrism bases moral consideration on sentience (capacity to experience - to suffer or flourish).
#Sentientism combines them: "Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings."
If #biocentrism and #ecocentrism are more inclusive than #sentiocentrism why do so many biocentrists and ecocentrists consume products made by directly harming and killing sentient beings?
Just like the anthropocentrists do. 🤷♀️
To give ourselves the best chance of making the universe better for all sentient beings we need to:
1) Have compassion for all sentient beings
and
2) Understand reality as well as we can.
1) is #Sentiocentrism. 2) is #Naturalism. Either, alone, isn't enough.
#Sentientism
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