Mental Proliferation, with Isabela Granic Clerestory (Bryan Kam)

Part 6 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, ⁠⁠⁠Isabela Granic⁠⁠⁠ asks about the Buddhist term "papança" and how it relates to anxiety and depression.

Topics discussed:


The meaning of papança or ⁠Conceptual proliferation⁠
Whether this proliferation is related to rumination, anxiety, and depression
Historicization of translations
How to deconstruct terms
Comparing conceptual evolution with biological evolution
Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer on definitions
The two directions of dependent origination
How and when to do conceptual genealogies like Nietzsche
Metaphors as newly coined versus worn-out coins
The increasing abstraction of the past few thousand years
Mental proliferation within a single mind
The resistance to abstraction by those who don't live in the built environment (Luria)
Individualism in Montaigne and Fichte
The issue of "obviousnesses" in Althusser's Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

Previous episodes:


Part 5 of this series: Crises and Revolutions
Part 4 of this series: ⁠Language and Experience⁠
Part 3 of this series: ⁠⁠AI and Pyrrhonism⁠⁠
Part 2 of this series: ⁠⁠⁠A Philosophical Journey⁠⁠
Part 1 of this series: ⁠⁠Causality and Conditionality⁠⁠

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠

Show notes


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bkam/message