Sentientism | "With great power comes great responsibility" - Elan Abrell - Anthropologist & Author - Ep: 154 @Sentientism | Uploaded May 2023 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Elan (sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/elan-abrell) is a cultural anthropologist focusing on human-animal interactions, environmental justice, and food politics. He is assistant professor of the practice in environmental studies and coordinator of the animal studies minor at Wesleyan University. He is the author of the Gregory Bateson Prize winning book: "Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care". He also contributed a chapter called "The Empty Promises of Cultured Meat" to the book "The Good it Promises, the Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism".
In 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 audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:25 Elan's Intro
- Cultural anthropology and teaching animal studies "my favourite thing to teach!"
- Appearing on Knowing Animals & Our Hen House
- Working with Kathryn Gillespie youtu.be/2plqPmQ-pA0
02:42 What's Real?
- Raised mostly #secular
- Dad believed in #reincarnation
- At 12yrs old becoming aware of major religions & thinking "probably none of them are right"
- "Materialist with a small 'm', empiricist with a small 'e'"
- "Probably when we die, we die... that just makes our lives more poignant & important"
- Being given a bible stories book by a #jehovahswitness "this god person is really cruel... like a villain"
- "Reassuring in a humbling kind of way... I'm a tiny part of this vast universe... we're no less important for that"
- "Mildly #agnostic... I know that I don't know"
- Not spiritual but "a certain sense of wonder"
- An #ayahuasca retreat. Most others talked of "spiritual" experiences. "I felt pretty in touch with the particles of the universe... I don't have any anthropomorphic encounters to explain I just felt deeply in touch with creation and appreciative that I'm a part of it... that went down like a lead balloon."
- Ego dissolution... "the seed of #sentience ... that I share... with other animals"
17:00 What Matters?
- #comics : "#spiderman was my favourite super-hero... with great power comes great responsibility" (vs. #judgedredd and "law and order" :) )
- "We have an obligation to help each other when we can"
- Fairness: "Some people's extra benefit isn't really worth anybody else's suffering"
- "I don't have a #utilitarianism perspective of maximising pleasure... but for each individual who experiences the world they deserve to have minimal suffering & maximal enjoyment of life"
- Understanding bad actions that may be a response to trauma or desperation - not bad ethics
- "An openness to understanding what might be motivating people even in conflicts"
- Neil Levy: youtu.be/Tp40ga1cXEc "Why bad beliefs happen to good people"
- Peter Singer
- Ethical pluralism: #care/#virtue/#deontological/relational ethics as long as all sentient beings get to count "that's exactly right"
- #elonmusk & the ethics of self-driving cars "it's deeply flawed if you can take individual lives & throw them away without their consent because you think it will actually benefit more people in the long run"
- #consequentialism
- Risks of utilitarianism: aggregating, offsetting, replacement, maximisation, ends justifying means, epistemic / ethical uncertainty & risk
26:21 Who Matters?
- Beyond #anthropocentrism
- Growing up "having relationships with members of other species"
- "It always struck me as silly - the idea that other animals don't have emotions & feelings & experiences... some things feel intuitive to a child's mind... you almost need to think your way out of it."
- Solipsism & other people being "NPCs" (non-player characters)
- Diverse experiences within & across species
- Matti Wilks "children are much less speciesist than adults": youtu.be/7qiO-I-Z9fU
- Delci Winders "we met in high school & she explained to me why she is #vegan... that day... I have to be vegan"
- "I felt an absolute anger at the #injustice "
- "Since I've mellowed a bit... a broader perspective... tempered the self-righteousness."
- At 17: "The rabbit & I just became bonded buddies... I don't want to eat pigs who are like this... or cows... a couple of years feeling guilty because I became aware of the fact that my diet was coming from this kind of violence..."
- "It was the 90's & I didn't know other people like that"
- Having compassion for those facing barriers to veganism
49:43 How To Make a Better Future?
#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.
Elan (sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/elan-abrell) is a cultural anthropologist focusing on human-animal interactions, environmental justice, and food politics. He is assistant professor of the practice in environmental studies and coordinator of the animal studies minor at Wesleyan University. He is the author of the Gregory Bateson Prize winning book: "Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care". He also contributed a chapter called "The Empty Promises of Cultured Meat" to the book "The Good it Promises, the Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism".
In 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 audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:25 Elan's Intro
- Cultural anthropology and teaching animal studies "my favourite thing to teach!"
- Appearing on Knowing Animals & Our Hen House
- Working with Kathryn Gillespie youtu.be/2plqPmQ-pA0
02:42 What's Real?
- Raised mostly #secular
- Dad believed in #reincarnation
- At 12yrs old becoming aware of major religions & thinking "probably none of them are right"
- "Materialist with a small 'm', empiricist with a small 'e'"
- "Probably when we die, we die... that just makes our lives more poignant & important"
- Being given a bible stories book by a #jehovahswitness "this god person is really cruel... like a villain"
- "Reassuring in a humbling kind of way... I'm a tiny part of this vast universe... we're no less important for that"
- "Mildly #agnostic... I know that I don't know"
- Not spiritual but "a certain sense of wonder"
- An #ayahuasca retreat. Most others talked of "spiritual" experiences. "I felt pretty in touch with the particles of the universe... I don't have any anthropomorphic encounters to explain I just felt deeply in touch with creation and appreciative that I'm a part of it... that went down like a lead balloon."
- Ego dissolution... "the seed of #sentience ... that I share... with other animals"
17:00 What Matters?
- #comics : "#spiderman was my favourite super-hero... with great power comes great responsibility" (vs. #judgedredd and "law and order" :) )
- "We have an obligation to help each other when we can"
- Fairness: "Some people's extra benefit isn't really worth anybody else's suffering"
- "I don't have a #utilitarianism perspective of maximising pleasure... but for each individual who experiences the world they deserve to have minimal suffering & maximal enjoyment of life"
- Understanding bad actions that may be a response to trauma or desperation - not bad ethics
- "An openness to understanding what might be motivating people even in conflicts"
- Neil Levy: youtu.be/Tp40ga1cXEc "Why bad beliefs happen to good people"
- Peter Singer
- Ethical pluralism: #care/#virtue/#deontological/relational ethics as long as all sentient beings get to count "that's exactly right"
- #elonmusk & the ethics of self-driving cars "it's deeply flawed if you can take individual lives & throw them away without their consent because you think it will actually benefit more people in the long run"
- #consequentialism
- Risks of utilitarianism: aggregating, offsetting, replacement, maximisation, ends justifying means, epistemic / ethical uncertainty & risk
26:21 Who Matters?
- Beyond #anthropocentrism
- Growing up "having relationships with members of other species"
- "It always struck me as silly - the idea that other animals don't have emotions & feelings & experiences... some things feel intuitive to a child's mind... you almost need to think your way out of it."
- Solipsism & other people being "NPCs" (non-player characters)
- Diverse experiences within & across species
- Matti Wilks "children are much less speciesist than adults": youtu.be/7qiO-I-Z9fU
- Delci Winders "we met in high school & she explained to me why she is #vegan... that day... I have to be vegan"
- "I felt an absolute anger at the #injustice "
- "Since I've mellowed a bit... a broader perspective... tempered the self-righteousness."
- At 17: "The rabbit & I just became bonded buddies... I don't want to eat pigs who are like this... or cows... a couple of years feeling guilty because I became aware of the fact that my diet was coming from this kind of violence..."
- "It was the 90's & I didn't know other people like that"
- Having compassion for those facing barriers to veganism
49:43 How To Make a Better Future?
#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.
