Alene is the President and Founder of Legal Impact for Chickens. She graduated from Harvard Law School, clerked for a federal judge and then started litigating for animals. She has worked at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and The Good Food Institute. Alene is licensed to practice law in New York, the District of Columbia, and California. Alene is committed to helping chickens to honor the memories of her two beloved avian family members, Conrad and Zeke.
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 video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
02:08 Alene's Intro
- "Making factory farm cruelty a liability... we sue companies for abusing animals on factory farms"
02:44 What's Real?
- Raised #atheist "they didn't teach me anything about god"
- A friend & camp counsellor talking about someone who is always watching you - even indoors!
- Mum: "Just don't argue with them because you don't want to make them upset"
- "I'm an atheist today... because I've never been encouraged to be religious I think I have a much more positive view of #religion "
- "It's kind of hard to know if anything's real... I don't feel like I have evidence of anything at all... even that I exist!"
- "I do assume there's ground I can walk on... that the things I see are real"
- "Day to day I live very much like a naturalistic person"
- "There's probably a world outside my body"
- Imperfect memory & perception & dreaming
- Arbitrary beliefs
- "How do I know my mind is functioning correctly?... it helps me have more empathy for people that think very differently"
- Risks & harms of bad epistemology
- #naturalism vs. #dogma vs. #fideism (#faith) vs. fake naturalism
22:25 What Matters?
- "#morality comes from psychology... humans just evolved morality... part of it comes from society"
- Descriptive & normative ethics
- Relativism
- "I have this intuitive sense that suffering is bad & joy is good"
- Utilitarianism
- Equality
- It's hard to convince a psychopath to be moral
- "Pick somebody who already cares about suffering... & show them how whoever I'm concerned about is suffering"
- #Consequentialism, #virtue ethics, #deontology, #feminist care ethics
- Offsetting one being's suffering with the flourishing of another?
- #pluralism
38:28 Who Matters?
- "I care about animals a lot"
...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!
Thanks Graham.
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/messageCheese Challenge & Pescetarian Paradox - Maja Cullen, Devon Docherty, Carol Jasper - Sentientism 200
"Reductionism is well-named. It reduces what you can do." - Michael Levin - Sentientism 199
"We need to imagine a different world" - Emilia Leese - author and host of Think Like a Vegan - Sentientism 198
Hip Hop is Going Green - Keith Tucker of Hip Hop is Green - Sentientism 197
Nigerian Food Revolution - Hakeem Jimo of Veggie Victory and ProVeg Nigeria - Sentientism 196
Consciousness Live! - with skateboarding philosopher Richard Brown - Sentientism 195
A Truly Humane Education - Laura Chepner - The Vegan Society's Education Officer - Sentientism 194
Imagining Ethical Schools - Sentientism 193
Is Veganic the Future of Farming? "We grow plants using plants" - Jimmy Videle - Sentientism 192
Half-Earth Socialism - Troy Vettese - Sentientism 191
"Your Neighbour Kills Puppies" - Tom Harris - Activist, Artist & Author - Sentientism 190
"A new world of animal justice" - Sabine Brels of World Animal Justice - Sentientism 189
Talking to Humanists about Sentientism - Cross-post bonus from Podcast for Inquiry - Sentientism 188
"What if we saw ourselves as species diplomats?" - David Peña-Guzmán of Overthink and SFSU - Sentientism 187
Could animal farming be good for the animals? The Logic of the Larder - with Nick Pendergrast - Cross-post bonus episode from 3CR's Freedom of Species radio show and podcast - Sentientism 186
"If you combine rationality and compassion you have the essence" - Jonathan Leighton of OPIS - Sentientism 185
Is veganism a moral obligation? Ghostless Machine cross-post bonus - Sentientism 184
Don't underestimate your influence! - Chris Bryant of Bryant Research - Sentientism 183
160: "Mother Cow, Mother India" - Yamini Narayanan - International Development A/Prof - Sentientism
Waking Cosmos - a cross-post bonus episode - Sentientism 182
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