Bryan Kam

Writing on the origins of complexity, selfhood, modern cognition and suffering, philosophy, history of science, literature, film.

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/bkam
Blog: https://bit.ly/3EYzjGM
Website: https://bryankam.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bryankam

Public Key

npub1qk4xhsfl688ecduwyhs9yeas78yvzawxgexvgch85jlqyhu7wawq0ngswr

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqt2ntcylarnuux78ztczjv7c0rjxpwhryvnxyvtn6f0szt708whqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejszrthwden5te0dehhxtnvdakqylrtdd

Publishing to

nostr.wine

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1qk4xhsfl688ecduwyhs9yeas78yvzawxgexvgch85jlqyhu7wawq0ngswr

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-11-23 11:14:02 UTC

I wrote on revising an academic article #philosophy https://open.substack.com/pub/bryankam/p/on-revision?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=447n8

2025-07-19 19:44:58 UTC

- reply

I'm still annoyed about the great oxidation event

2025-07-19 13:43:18 UTC

I gave a talk on what brought me to #philosophy and #history of #science for Philosophy for All in London. You can watch it here: https://www.bryankam.com/p/philosophy-for-all-talk-on-thinking?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false @npub1uqy…kvhk @npub1uc0…cpgf

2025-07-12 07:51:24 UTC

I wrote more about #rationalism, #empiricism, and #foundationalism https://www.bryankam.com/p/rationalism-and-empiricism
#philosophy #history @npub1uc0…cpgf @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-07-05 16:19:34 UTC

Wrote a bit about #rationalism and #empiricism https://www.bryankam.com/p/when-philosophers-panic #philosophy @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-06-02 08:13:18 UTC

I write about #Nietzsche and #Klein's differing views on #gratitude and what they regard as its opposites: fear and envy.
https://www.bryankam.com/p/gratitude-and-its-opposites #philosophy #psychology #psychoanalysis @npub1uqy…kvhk @npub1wde…dg4n

2025-05-29 09:57:26 UTC

How can reasoning be both basic and an achievement?
https://www.bryankam.com/p/reasoning-requires-training?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#philosophy #history #logic #reason #Kant #Aristotle #Luria #Peirce @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-04-28 23:09:31 UTC

Why #Aristotle doesn't solve the problems caused by #Plato https://www.bryankam.com/p/the-immanent-turn #philosophy @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-04-07 09:04:04 UTC

What if truth is just another form of lying? https://www.bryankam.com/p/false-antitheses?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false #Nietzsche #philosophy #Plato #Kant @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-03-24 09:31:12 UTC

I wrote on particulars, universals, and alternating between the two https://www.bryankam.com/p/from-will-to-representation-and-back?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false #Aristotle #Schopenhauer #philosophy #logic @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-03-15 22:48:24 UTC

Did #Heraclitus say that you can't step into the same river twice? The answer may shock you!
https://open.substack.com/pub/bryankam/p/a-river-of-difference?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#philosophy #Kuhn #Plato #Aristotle #Deleuze #Saussure

2025-03-07 12:07:01 UTC

A word game: #Zhuangzi #schopenhauer #Nietzsche #Wittgenstein https://open.substack.com/pub/bryankam/p/a-word-game?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web #philosophy @npub1uqy…kvhk

2025-02-13 09:53:06 UTC

From Zhuangzi’s Outer Chapters, written sometime in the 4th to 2nd century BC China, making a very similar argument to what I’m saying about love in Socrates:
https://www.bryankam.com/p/love-abstractedly
#philosophy #Socrates #Zhuangzi #language
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/113/995/960/113/954/337/original/93c27d0fdbb7db95.png

2025-02-09 09:49:49 UTC

Some Dangerous Methods. I wrote about the shift in #Socrates method from his early "elenchus," to "collection and division" in #Plato, to categories in #Aristotle #philosophy https://www.bryankam.com/p/some-dangerous-methods?r=447n8

2025-01-31 19:51:30 UTC

What we philosophize about when we philosophize about love https://open.substack.com/pub/bryankam/p/love-abstractedly?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#philosophy #Nietzsche #Plato #Durkheim #Vygotsky #Platonism
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/113/924/707/685/553/516/original/94e51867ec1d97f3.jpg

2025-01-25 14:34:11 UTC

Today I wrote about the Birth of Logic https://www.bryankam.com
#philosophy #logic #Nietzsche #Durkheim #Schopenhauer #Kant #Peirce @npub1uqy…kvhk
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/113/889/483/896/770/904/original/48a0a49141656e16.jpg

2025-01-18 21:57:00 UTC

On how we came to group things under concepts https://www.bryankam.com/p/durkheim-and-classification?r=447n8 #philosophy

2025-01-06 21:42:56 UTC

I'm looking for sources for ancient/medieval/early modern/modern thinkers (from anywhere) who have disputed 1) the law of the excluded middle, 2) the law of non-contradiction, and 3) the law of identity. Anyone I should be reading? #philosophy

2024-12-15 22:07:03 UTC

If you're on Tiktok I'm doing a series on the Correspondence Theory of #Truth in #philosophy https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdrQPxaD/
Covered so far: #Aristotle #Aquinas #Wittgenstein #Daston #Heraclitus

2024-12-11 14:06:50 UTC

I recorded a #podcast on #diabetes and #philosophy with my friend Pen https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/bkam/episodes/Type-1-Diabetes--Part-1-A-Walk-in-the-Woods-e2s50pg

2024-12-08 09:15:21 UTC

A podcast in which I walk and chat #philosophy with my friend @delia_burgess
☯️ https://open.spotify.com/episode/7FuKPJKeDVPNtoQa3ozKD5?si=lZM3V62eTFulD_yT2BwGgw

2024-12-02 21:26:19 UTC

A Brief History of Truth https://www.bryankam.com/p/a-brief-history-of-truth?utm_source=activity_item #philosophy

2024-11-01 09:52:34 UTC

"I distrust all systematizers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity."
— #Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, §26 #philosophy

2024-10-16 18:18:52 UTC

"Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule."
— #Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
#philosophy

2024-10-12 09:05:11 UTC

The most valuable insights are the last to be discovered; but methods are the most valuable insights.
— #Nietzsche The Anti-Christ, §13
#philosophy

2024-10-10 10:15:26 UTC

Alexander Luria on the contingency of consciousness in Cognitive Development (1936) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Luria
#philosophy #psychology #consciousness
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/113/282/600/082/928/459/original/175b6a5f5976a9f4.png

2024-10-01 08:54:37 UTC

What do you make of this passage from the Buddhist scriptures about views? Just curious what initial reactions are like #Buddhism #philosophy
https://suttacentral.net/mn72/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

2024-09-24 20:19:27 UTC

I made a webpage that lets you compare different translations of the #Dao de jing / #Tao te ching
https://www.bryankam.com/p/i-made-a-dao-de-jing-translation #philosophy @npub1uqy…kvhk #taoism #daoism

2024-09-11 08:26:22 UTC

More on #Schopenhauer’s view of how #art suspends the will, which I wrote about here https://www.bryankam.com/p/dichotomies-iii #philosophy
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/113/117/963/784/564/746/original/cd73689156bd8bfd.png