The Mind of Daniel Santos

Boban Dedović Host

00:11 Hello, I'm Boban Dedović, and this is episode two of the "What we talk about when we talk about mind" podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be interviewing Daniel Santos, who is a current a swimmer at St. Francis College in New York. He's originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he speaks Portuguese, Spanish, as well as English. And today we're going to discuss what he talks about when he talks about mind.

Boban Dedović Host

00:41 And for this episode, and all those moving forward, we're going to be doing something a little bit special. Whilst interviewing each guest, I shall be wearing one of these special hats that I had manufactured. You cannot find these hats in the stores nor on the Internet. I had these custom hats made with a special word imprinted on the top of the cap. And in each interview, each unique hat is going to represent the word "mind" in a separate language.

Boban Dedović Host

01:16 And in each subsequent episode introduction, I'll be introducing the hat as well as the word and just a little bit of interesting information about that specific word and what culture it comes from.

Boban Dedović Host

01:30 So in this case, we have the word νόος noos or nous. It comes from Homeric Greek, and it lasted up through the classical period and in some instances it's actually still used today in the Greek language. And the word translates, like all others, as "mind." But this is a very special word because it's extremely close to the way that contemporary English speakers use the word "mind." So νόος noos comes from the Greek word νοεῖν noein, which means "to see." And this means that the word has a very close relationship with the modality of vision.

Boban Dedović Host

02:13 For example, in the Homeric epics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey–moreso the Odyssey–you'll hear expressions such as "Zeus holds Odysseus in his νόος noos," which means that he keeps watch over him. And I'm very excited to wear this hat as well as some of the others in the episodes that are going to be coming up in the next few weeks.

Boban Dedović Host

02:39 Okay, so tell me, what is your native language?

Daniel Santos Guest

02:43 My native language is Portuguese.

Boban Dedović Host

02:46 Okay, so Portuguese, just so a reader can understand, Portuguese is similar to Spanish, but it's different in some ways. Correct?

Daniel Santos Guest

02:59 Exactly. It's very similar. But some words, it can get confused sometimes. So it's like for us Portuguese, it's very easy. And if someone talks in Spanish, we can understand something, but if someone speaks only Spanish, they cannot understand us.