Sentientism | "Spirituality is a great way in which capitalism commodifies people's belief" - Richard Twine - 213 @Sentientism | Uploaded September 2024 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
Richard is Reader in Sociology at @EdgeHillUniversity in the UK, working at the nexus of critical animal studies, environmental sociology, the sociology of climate change and gender studies. He is co-director of The Centre for Human Animal Studies, an interdisciplinary forum for research and activities that engage with the complex material, ethical and symbolic relationships between humans, other animals, and their environments. Richard is the author of many articles, papers and books for both academic audiences and the wider public, including "The Climate Crisis and Other Animals".
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 audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & open.spotify.com/show/3c9OG5Mwf7PGChWFYBzuQI.
00:00 Clips!
00:43 Welcome
02:34 Richard's Intro
- Philosophy, psychology, history, natural sciences, bio-technology and sociology
- Ecofeminism (Carol Adams, Val Plumwood), Regan, Singer, then Critical Animal Studies
- The "flawed awakenings" of climate change awareness and non-human animal ethics
05:28 What's Real?
- Non-religious, implicitly atheist, socialist parents and household
- Attending Sunday School with a Christian friend "It didn't have any effect - it was just another space to play"
- A religious teacher who "made us recite the Lord's Prayer at the start of every day... that was odd... that kind of drove me away from religion"
- Asking for an exemption from religious education at secondary school "Probably sociologically limited because it's actually good to learn about religion... but I already knew that wasn't something that I wanted to spend my time doing"
- A materialist outlook "when we die, we die... decompose and feed the rest of nature... a kind of beautiful thing... I don't believe in an afterlife"
- Avoiding dogmatism about materialism. Interested in near-death experiences
- "I'm on board with that aspect of Sentientism - reason and evidence... but I would also add that my atheism isn't simplistically rationalistic... elements of romanticism in it... Shelley... beauty and wonder of nature giving us some kind of meaningfulness in our lives... that's enough."
- "There's a poor track record with religiosity and conservative ideology... distanced me from it... used to justify patriarchy, anthropocentrism, colonialism, capitalism etc."
- A hobbyist interest in UFOs and UAPs "stems from my childhood... subscribed to a magazine called 'The Unexplained'... I've always had that interest but ultimately - give me some evidence."
- Conspiracy theories and cover-ups "I'm skeptical but I'm fascinated"
- Richard's "'Alien' Disclosure and Critical Animal Studies" blog post sites.edgehill.ac.uk/cfhas/blog-post-january-2024
- Spritualistic ecofeminism "I didn't like it... turns a politics into a personal identity project... egocentric."
- "Spirituality is a great way in which capitalism commodifies people's belief systems... it's a big business - spirituality"
- "There's enough spirituality just in appreciating a walk in a forest or jumping into a waterfall... or having a great empathic experience with something that has a face"
- The @Conspiritualitypodcast
- The problems of #humanism and Richard's "I'll be ticking no religion but obviously not a humanist" tweet
- "When I was a lot younger I would have identified with humanism but part of my journey has been distancing myself from humanism... for me humanism has been too much too tied to the anthropocentric ideology"
- "I've become more interested in post-humanism as a whole... tools to decentre the human"
- "The need for humanism keeps being recycled... we keep having atrocities..."
- "I don't think we've learned the lessons from the second world war yet... difference and otherness... we're still doing that - we're still otherising... muslims or women... 80 years later we've not really learned... we're kind of stuck"
- JW: "A post-humanist approach or a sentientist approach gives us a better chance of addressing the intra-human challenges as well."
- JW: "If they [humanists] can't fix that then they've become another dogma... If they gets stuck with anthropocentrism then they're betraying their own humanism"
26:48 What Matters?
32:59 Who Matters?
58:29 A Better World?
01:21:12 Follow Richard
- richardtwine.com
- https://x.com/richardtwine
- sites.edgehill.ac.uk/cfhas
- https://x.com/CfHAS
- blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781743328996
& much more... see sentientism.info for full notes.
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
Richard is Reader in Sociology at @EdgeHillUniversity in the UK, working at the nexus of critical animal studies, environmental sociology, the sociology of climate change and gender studies. He is co-director of The Centre for Human Animal Studies, an interdisciplinary forum for research and activities that engage with the complex material, ethical and symbolic relationships between humans, other animals, and their environments. Richard is the author of many articles, papers and books for both academic audiences and the wider public, including "The Climate Crisis and Other Animals".
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 audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & open.spotify.com/show/3c9OG5Mwf7PGChWFYBzuQI.
00:00 Clips!
00:43 Welcome
02:34 Richard's Intro
- Philosophy, psychology, history, natural sciences, bio-technology and sociology
- Ecofeminism (Carol Adams, Val Plumwood), Regan, Singer, then Critical Animal Studies
- The "flawed awakenings" of climate change awareness and non-human animal ethics
05:28 What's Real?
- Non-religious, implicitly atheist, socialist parents and household
- Attending Sunday School with a Christian friend "It didn't have any effect - it was just another space to play"
- A religious teacher who "made us recite the Lord's Prayer at the start of every day... that was odd... that kind of drove me away from religion"
- Asking for an exemption from religious education at secondary school "Probably sociologically limited because it's actually good to learn about religion... but I already knew that wasn't something that I wanted to spend my time doing"
- A materialist outlook "when we die, we die... decompose and feed the rest of nature... a kind of beautiful thing... I don't believe in an afterlife"
- Avoiding dogmatism about materialism. Interested in near-death experiences
- "I'm on board with that aspect of Sentientism - reason and evidence... but I would also add that my atheism isn't simplistically rationalistic... elements of romanticism in it... Shelley... beauty and wonder of nature giving us some kind of meaningfulness in our lives... that's enough."
- "There's a poor track record with religiosity and conservative ideology... distanced me from it... used to justify patriarchy, anthropocentrism, colonialism, capitalism etc."
- A hobbyist interest in UFOs and UAPs "stems from my childhood... subscribed to a magazine called 'The Unexplained'... I've always had that interest but ultimately - give me some evidence."
- Conspiracy theories and cover-ups "I'm skeptical but I'm fascinated"
- Richard's "'Alien' Disclosure and Critical Animal Studies" blog post sites.edgehill.ac.uk/cfhas/blog-post-january-2024
- Spritualistic ecofeminism "I didn't like it... turns a politics into a personal identity project... egocentric."
- "Spirituality is a great way in which capitalism commodifies people's belief systems... it's a big business - spirituality"
- "There's enough spirituality just in appreciating a walk in a forest or jumping into a waterfall... or having a great empathic experience with something that has a face"
- The @Conspiritualitypodcast
- The problems of #humanism and Richard's "I'll be ticking no religion but obviously not a humanist" tweet
- "When I was a lot younger I would have identified with humanism but part of my journey has been distancing myself from humanism... for me humanism has been too much too tied to the anthropocentric ideology"
- "I've become more interested in post-humanism as a whole... tools to decentre the human"
- "The need for humanism keeps being recycled... we keep having atrocities..."
- "I don't think we've learned the lessons from the second world war yet... difference and otherness... we're still doing that - we're still otherising... muslims or women... 80 years later we've not really learned... we're kind of stuck"
- JW: "A post-humanist approach or a sentientist approach gives us a better chance of addressing the intra-human challenges as well."
- JW: "If they [humanists] can't fix that then they've become another dogma... If they gets stuck with anthropocentrism then they're betraying their own humanism"
26:48 What Matters?
32:59 Who Matters?
58:29 A Better World?
01:21:12 Follow Richard
- richardtwine.com
- https://x.com/richardtwine
- sites.edgehill.ac.uk/cfhas
- https://x.com/CfHAS
- blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781743328996
& much more... see sentientism.info for full notes.
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
