Constantine is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, Director of Lex Academic & a Fellow of the RSA. He describes his philosophical interests as “unfashionably broad, but I work primarily in the philosophy of action, moral psychology & interpersonal understanding. I also have an interest in the psychology of philosophy, as advanced by Hume, Nietzsche, & Wittgenstein.” He spent most of his twenties as a theatre director & playwright.

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

01:15 Constantine's Intro

• "I'm looking forward to finding out if I'm a Sentientist or not"

• Teaching & researching philosophy

• Phil of action, Wittgenstein & Hume, virtue ethics, anti-vegan rhetoric

• Rejecting the separation betweeen human & non-human animals "Who are 'we' anyway?"

• The value of improving human worldviews (epistemology & ethics)

• Beliefs & values & reasons driving action

08:07 What's Real?

• Greek Orthodox Christian upbringing but "science was taken very seriously"

• Born in India, living in Zimbabwe

• Being placed in "Protestant" vs. "Catholic" or "Ethics" class

• Agnostic as a teenager

• Degree at Oxford in phil & theology "By the end of that degree I was atheist"

• "The more you read about it [the bible] as a human text..."

• Studying Christian moral reasoning & Nietzsche

• Wittgenstein & Kierkegaard

• "I'm not one of those Dawkins style atheists"

• "I just don't have this faith"

• "Everyday life was very naturalistic"

• Culturally Christian

• Those who stay religious but update the ethics

• "I think there are things we can't explain"

• Doubt as central to science & naturalism

• "I know the precise second I switched from agnostic to atheist" in a phil of religion lecture: "Just because it's possible something exists & you can't disprove it's existence doesn't mean you're agnostic about it... a 3 headed dragon in some other galaxy." Atheism & Adragonism :)

• Norms re: religious rituals/marriage

• Why do religious organisations get a pass re: basic ethics? (sexism, homophobia, abuse)?

• Atheist societies often suffer from similar problems

• The good that can come from religion

• Allen Ginsberg re: homophobia in Cuba

• Post-truth, QAnon, homeopathy, Flat Earth... epistemology fails

• Refusing medical treatment on religious grounds

• Vountary euthanasia

• Wearing the hijab

• Personal autonomy, but don't harm others

35:18 What (and who) matters?

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.

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.