Salute before you cross swords with Damon Young

2025-10-31

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/salute-before-you-cross-swords-with-damon-young To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy My guest today, Damon Young, is an Australian philosopher, author and martial artist. He has written 14 books or so, including Philosophy in the Garden, Distraction, and On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy. He has also edited a couple of ...

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/salute-before-you-cross-swords-with-damon-young

To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

My guest today, Damon Young, is an Australian philosopher, author and martial artist. He has written 14 books or so, including Philosophy in the Garden, Distraction, and On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy. He has also edited a couple of books on philosophy and martial arts, such as Engagement: Philosophy and the Martial Arts, and Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating and Nothingness, perhaps my favourite title.

His latest work is Immortal Gestures, Journeys in the Unspoken.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to:

To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

You might remember Damon from his previous appearances on this show in Episode 31, Why Swords Are Cool, and again in Episode 44, What is a Sword?

Unfortunately for Damon, he’s not doing a lot of sword swinging at the moment because of an as yet unidentified issue with his arms. We discuss how he might get this issue sorted – which may involve flying to Helsinki – and how it can be tricky to prioritise your own health over other priorities and difficult life stuff.

We also revisit the definition of a sword. What is a sword? When is a sword-like object not a sword?

Damon’s new book is about gestures, and we talk about the weird politeness of a salute or a bow that’s absolutely essential before you try and murder someone with a kilo of sharp steel. A gesture can be an important symbol of trust and respect, and this courtesy separates martial arts or duels from a more bestial act or something a commoner might do.

Our conversation goes off in several tangents, discussing whether philosophy is a scam, pens, getting rid of stuff, cataloguing your book collection, notebooks and the history of sticking two fingers up to the French.

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