Sentientism – Jamie Woodhouse
- Sentientism - Jamie Woodhouse Terry McMullen 1:01:03
Jamie is developing a philosophy called sentientism (as hard to write as it is to say), which is based on the idea of using evidence and reason to determine what living beings are sentient and then showing compassion for them. This is one of those concepts that seems so obvious and hard to argue, until you get into the weeds of it. As with any philosophy, there are aspects of it that become subjective. How are we defining sentient, how are we defining compassion, what is the underlying rationale for needing to show compassion?
As I spoke with Jamie I realized there was a strong theme of trying to overcome our “human nature” to live a better, more compassionate, more ideal existence. In many ways, despite the lack of religious underpinnings, the concept of sentientism seems to be trying to do what so many religions have tried to do. They are trying to convince people that our natural instincts don’t always serve us well and that there is a better way. This was a really interesting discussion about one view of what it means to be a “good person.”
More complete Bio from Jamie-
Jamie is developing and building a global movement around a new philosophy called Sentientism = Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals – but possibly even sentient AI). You can find his podcast appearances so far here: https://sentientism.info/what-is-sentientism/podcasts. The site also has some video discussions and published articles. They are also on Twitter at @Sentientism.
