Walter is an inter-disciplinary philosopher. He works primarily on the Philosophy of Cognitive and Biological Sciences, the Philosophy of Mind, Applied Ethics and particularly in the intersections of those fields. Much of his recent work has focused on animal minds, welfare, and ethics, as well as evolution. His new book ‘A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness‘ integrates this research into a coherent whole. It is being launched today (16th June) with Routledge.
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 Taster clips!
01:02 Welcome
02:22 Book Launch: A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness
03:40 Walter's Intro
- Peter Godfrey-Smith & Paul Griffiths
- Heather Browning
- "An evolutionary, non-anthropocentric approach"
- "A lot of the denial of pain [e.g. fish, crustaceans, octopuses] has rested on a very #anthropocentric position"
- Some animals have different eyes vs. humans but that doesn't mean they can't see. The same applies re: the architectures underpinning consciousness
- "what animal lives are like... what kinds of subjective experiences would be useful for them to have from a #Darwinian perspective"
- Studying consciousness "as a natural phenomenon... rather than... as a human phenomenon"
- Did human social contexts (barter, trade, co-operation, agreements) lead to us having more abstract cognitive facilities?
- Modern discoveries re: advanced cognitive and social capabilities in non-human animals (e.g. corvids, octopuses)
10:53 A Darwinian Perspective
- Daniel Dennett "Complexity matters - but what kind of compexity"
- IIT & HigherOrderTheory
- Brain hemispheres operating more independently. Two separate streams of experience?
- Theories of consciousness that are untestable or fail to make predictions
- Panpsychism, illusionism
- "The Darwinian bottleneck"
- "Philosophers very rarely ask the question 'where does the mind come from?'"
- "In order to understand how it works we'll need to understand why it evolved"
- "We can only understand what consciousness is by understanding how it evolved"
- Evolution & development processes
- Epiphenomena
- Marian Dawkins
- "This attitude that anything goes in the literature... it doesn't seem like we're making any progress... we're just creating new outlandish views without having any means of trying to filter them out... like panpsychism"
- JW: "It's very common for people to say 'we know nothing about consciousness' which I find a bizarre statement"
- "We've made so much scientific progress"
- "There are some mental properties that are unique to humans but it's very unclear those are the ones that matter for moral purposes"
20:31 The Origins of Sentience & Consciousness
- "It is adaptationist... very complex phenomena don't just appear out of nowhere... They almost always have a functional role. They're not just spandrels..."
- "Consciousness is just far to complex and evolutionarily fine tuned for that to happen"
- "In our own experience we can see how well it helps us... even if it sometimes can misfire"
- The mistaken view that consciousness must be sharp-edged & binary, on or off
- "If you can't explain how it can gradually come into existence you must believe that it has always been there" #panpsychism
- Wanting to apply crisp well bounded concepts (baldness, life, health, consciousness) to a messy reality
...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/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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