How wide should "The Moral Circle" go? - Jeff Sebo - Sentientism 229
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Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, and Co-Director of the Wild Animal Welfare Program at New York University. He is also a Faculty Fellow at the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy & Land Use Law at the NYU School of Law and an Advisor at the Animals in Context series at NYU Press. Jeff's research focuses on moral philosophy, legal philosophy, and philosophy of mind; animal minds, ethics, and policy; AI minds, ethics, and policy; and global health and climate ethics and policy. His books include The Moral Circle and Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves and he is co-author of Chimpanzee Rights and Food, Animals, and the Environment.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"
Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.00:00 Clips
01:20 Welcome
- Our first Sentientist Conversation, episode 26
- Jeff's book The Moral Circle
- Endorsements from previous Sentientism guests Barbara King and Peter Singer
- Welcome Smokey!
02:50 Jeff's Intro
- Research and teaching and leading programmes at NYU including the Wild Animal Welfare Programme and the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness
- Asking "How humans can better interact with the non-human world... who might matter, how much might they matter, what might they need, what might we owe them, what follows for our actions and policies and priorities...?"
- Directing the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection "agriculture, farmed animal welfare, #biodiversity, wild animal welfare..."
- Directing the NY Center for Mind, Ethics and Policy "Non-human minds... invertebrates and AI systems"
04:37 The Moral Circle
- JW: "Does it have to be a circle?"
- "I was concerned... it implies that humanity is at the centre and that other beings matter or are closer to the centre to thedegree that they resemble us"
- "There are other types of spatial metaphors that could be interesting to explore... a sphere... a cone..."
- "I ultimately decided to stick with the circle... the project was going to be provocative and alienating enough..."
- "We right now at least increasingly agree that all humans and many non-human animals... merit consideration"
- "The book asks 'should we go farther?'"
08:32 What Makes Us Matter?11:39 Why is Sentience Important?19:16 What About Zero-Valence Consciousness?
Follow Jeff:
- "The Moral Circle"
- Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves (now open access and free to read!)
And more... full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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228 episodes