Damon Young is an Australian martial artist and philosopher, author of books like Philosophy in the Garden and the soon to be published in Europe, already out in Australia, On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy. He has also edited a couple of books on philosophy and martial arts: Engagement, Philosophy and the Martial Arts, and Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating and Nothingness.
In this fascinating conversation we discuss the importance of the study of philosophy when practising martial arts. How do we know the difference between bravery and foolhardiness? How can someone engage in violence and still be a good person? And perhaps, most importantly, why are swords so damn cool?
Philosophy is a precise field, and at one point Damon tells me he misspoke: “I describe David Hume as empirical and rational. This is true, but I ought to have said “sceptical” not “rational” (to distinguish him from rationalists like Descartes).” Incidentally, all my guests have the opportunity to check the episode for boo-boos like this before it goes live. I am sworn to secrecy about what may or may not have been cut from this or any other episode! And I am always happy to insert nuanced corrections in the shownotes, if they are beyond the scope of editing the audio file.
For Damon’s essay on why swords are cool, you can find the details of the Meanjin magazine article in Damon’s blog post here.
Damon has also written a series of six books for children, which he mentions near the end of this episode. If you would like to check them out, the first one is My Nanna is a Ninja, which is available in the usual bookshops. You can watch him reading it on YouTube here.