Marc is professor emeritus of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published 31 books, won many awards for his research on animal behavior, animal emotions, compassionate conservation, & animal protection, has worked closely with Jane Goodall, & is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Marc’s latest books are “Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do” & “Unleashing Your Dog: A Field Guide to Giving Your Canine Companion the Best Life Possible” (with Jessica Pierce) & he also publishes regularly for Psychology Today. Marc & Jessica have recently written “A Dog’s World” about what the world will be like for dogs as & when humans disappear (Princeton University Press, 2021). In 1986 Marc won the Master’s age-graded Tour de France. His homepage is https://marcbekoff.com/.
In these Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.”
The audio is also on our Podcast – subscribe here on Apple: (& here for all the other platforms).
We discuss:
- Growing up in Brooklyn & not being a strong student in high-school
- Talking to a companion goldfish & the neighbourhood animals
- Imagining perpectives of non-human animals: “Minding animals”
- Seeming bizarre to question the sentience of non-human animals
- Selling records, undergrad degree, then a career using play behaviour as a window into the animal perspective
- Michael Fox’s work with canids & becoming his grad student
- Nagel’s “What is it like to be a bat?”
- Donald Griffin’s “The question of animal awareness” & “Animal Minds”
- Animal protection as a lifelong focus
- Getting academics out of the clouds and into helping
- Growing up in a culturally Jewish home with Russian Jewish immigrant grandparents, but being an atheist from day one
- My parents never called me “nuts” when I said good morning to the goldfish every day
- “People ask which school of philosophy I follow – I have no idea”
- An identification with other sentient beings
- “I just never made that divide between human & non-human”
- Refusing to dissect or experiment on animals in school, as an undergrad & at med school
- Going “cold tofu” & cutting out animal products. Vegetarian then vegan
- The moral value of sentient beings & non-sentient living things
- “I don’t think plants can feel pain in an aversive way”
- “If we find out carrots feel pain, I won’t eat carrots”
- “We know certain things about sentience in non-human animals & that is enough for people to change their meal plans”
- “I never doubted that non-human animals had feelings” (Luna barks in agreement)
- Anthropocentric environmentalism that ignores farmed & most wild animals
- New Zealand’s “War on Wildlife” re: “non-native” species
- Granting rights to rivers & rocks
- Instrumental importance can still be very important
- Compassionate Conservationism: “every individual matters” so work out solutions for all sentient stakeholders
- So much welfare legislation excludes most suffering animals
- Standard conservation: “We don’t need you because there are plenty of others of your species”!
- Taking the perspective of the oppressed individual
- Being indoctrinated away from naturalism & compassion for sentients
- How even otherwise careful thinkers remain trapped by harmful social norms
- “Friends think I’m crazy but I am optimistic”
- The OneHealth movement – it’s a win win for human and non-human animals together
- Better ethics re: non-humans will improve our ethics re: other humans
- From “I know they suffer but I love my burger” to “It’s who you eat, not what you eat”
- Sentientist language, moving from object to subject language re: non-humans (Microsoft grammar checking)
- Food as a particularly emotive topic. People want to retain choice + control
- Even human supremacists should go vegan
- Ethical arguments don’t drive enough change, but other pressures are building too (climate, zoonosis, anti-microbial resistance, human health)
- “What we do to help non-humans helps humans”
- Setting an example: Biking 400km on a vegan meal plan
- Sentientism means having compassion even for people we disagree with
- “I feel for human suffering too”
- “There will be a sea change… we’re on a trajectory towards our moral compass being inclusive of non-humans and humans.. it’s a win win for all”
- We’ve made progress in the last 50y
- “We’re alive right now so just go do it”.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our “wall” https://sentientism.info/wall/
using this simple form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.
Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is here on FaceBook.
Thanks to Graham for his post-prod work. Follow him: @cgbessellieu.