190. Nous: Common Sense and So Much More

Emily and Kyle think, therefore they are—and this week thinking is the name of the game! They’re digging into the philosophy of human intelligence, the mind that set the universe turning, and common sense in British slang, as they discuss the meaning and origin of nous.

Our hosts parse through the Ancient Greeks’ understanding of the mind. They look at quotes from Homer as well as Parmenides—whose name is begging for a punchline that Kyle and Emily can’t quite reach. But the conversation soon turns from the individual to the cosmic, as the works of Aristotle reveal that philosophy and theology might be closer than you think.

Emily then leads a jaunt from Ancient Greece to early modern Britain, where nous gained not only new meaning but new pronunciation. And Kyle employs his common sense to guess the meanings of some ancient turns of phrase.