Jonathan is an ethics strategist, writer, social change advocate and public speaker. He is Executive Director of the Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering (OPIS), a Swiss-based think-and-do tank that promotes the prevention of human and non-human suffering as our overriding global ethical priority. His book, The Battle for Compassion: Ethics in an Apathetic Universe, explores the question "What matters?". His new book The Tango of Ethics: Intuition, Rationality and the Prevention of Suffering goes further in proposing a rigorous reassessment of how we think about ethics.
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 video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Clips!
01:00 Welcome
03:34 Jon's Intro
- Molecular biology PhD
- Ethicist
- Writing "The Battle for Compassion" and "The Tango of Ethics"
- Running the "think and do tank" OPIS (Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering) "Trying to put the ideas into practice"
04:41 What's Real?
- A scientific family, physicist father
- "A naturalistic, mechanistic way of thinking about the world"
- "It's not that there was no #spirituality at all... a #Jewish household that was more traditional than religious... Reciting things that I didn't necessarily understand the meaning of"
- "...a brief phase where I did take things [religious prescriptions] more literally... but that didn't last very long"
- "Seeing the world as inherently physical"
- "Not to say that the subjective doesn't matter... the subjective is the essence of what matters"
- Maternal grandfather "I remember him describing himself as a Humanist... his way of saying 'don't take the supernatural too seriously'"
- "I think spirituality is an important part of life... but I don't think of spirituality in the supernatural sense... I think of spirituality in terms of the experience... a feeling that there is an intense meaning possible in life."
- "During spiritual experiences we might suspend the very rational perspective. You can't really be fully plunged into a spiritual experience if you're also trying to analyse things scientifically at the same time."
- In circles with people, lighting a fire, reciting poetry... "it feels like a source of meaning at times to get into that other state of mind."
- "It's this dance between two very different perspectives"
- "How do we reconcile the need to understand reality as accurately as possible using the tools of rationality and science and how do we also extract meaning from our existence?"
- JW: Instead of a scientistic denial or a mystical reification of the subjective... a recognition that our subjective experiences are part of the objective world we all share... and are the source of its value
- Subjective experience is determined by the physical "but you won't actually know what it's like... without having experienced it yourself"
13:25 What Matters?
- "Subjective experience... it's the most important part of reality... the only part of reality that really matters when it comes down to ethics..."
46:40 Who Matters?
01:03:37 How To Make A Better World?
01:19:43 Follow Jon and OPIS
- https://www.jonathanleighton.org/
- https://www.preventsuffering.org/
...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.
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--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/messageConsciousness Live! - with skateboarding philosopher Richard Brown - Sentientism 195
A Truly Humane Education - Laura Chepner - The Vegan Society's Education Officer - Sentientism Ep:194
Imagining Ethical Schools - Sentientism 193
Is Veganic the Future of Farming? "We grow plants using plants" - Jimmy Videle - Sentientism Ep:192
Half-Earth Socialism - Troy Vettese - Sentientism Ep:191
"Your Neighbour Kills Puppies" - Tom Harris - Activist, Artist & Author - Sentientism Ep: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
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
Christof Koch & IIT - "Consciousness is not a computation... it's a state of being" - Sentientism 181
S-Risks with Tobias Baumann - "Avoiding the Worst... a moral catastrophe" - Sentientism 180
Melanie Joy - "How to End Injustice Everywhere" - Sentientism 179
178: "A commitment to solidarity and a stubborn commitment to hope" - Defending Animals Author - Kendra Coulter - Sentientism
177: "Vegan Reflections" on animals and systems - with Jordi Casamitjana from Vegan FTA - a cross-post bonus episode
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