Episode #232 ... Byung Chul Han - The Crisis of Narration

Philosophize This!

Stephen West

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 16.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we talk about the book The Crisis of Narration by the philosopher Byung Chul Han. We talk about the history of storytelling. Walter Benjamins distinction between a Paris fire and a revolution in Madrid. The effects of social media on memory. Story telling vs story selling. AI as pure Intelligenz lacking Geist. The ability for stories to give shape to suffering. The importance of boredom for self-discovery. Hope you love it! :) Sponsors: Greenlight: https://www.greenlight.com/PT Better Help: https://www.BetterHelp.com/PHILTHIS Nord VPN: https://nordvpn.com/philothis Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis Social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcast X: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophize This. Patreon.com slash philosophize this,
0:06.6	Philosophical writing on Substack at Philosophize This on there. I hope you love the show today.
0:11.9	So, Bianchch-Lhan is a bit of a fan favorite on this podcast. Lots of emails sent almost two years ago
0:17.0	when we did a couple episodes on his work. and since then he's released a couple more books.
0:21.6	The one today is called The Crisis of Narration.
0:24.6	And as your philosophical Sherpa, here's my take on how to best approach this book.
0:28.6	To me it seems there's two big pieces of his argument.
0:31.6	One is a description of something big that's changed about the world we live in,
0:35.6	and the other is the existential cost that people
0:37.9	have to pay living in this new world, the people there being us. That's how I'm going to
0:42.7	structure this episode today. I'll kind of swap between first describing the world he depicts,
0:46.9	and then I'll explain the cost of it. Just know that throughout all of this,
0:51.1	Biong Chilhan is setting his sights on what he sees as an absolutely sickening
0:54.6	decline, a storytelling, a decline that has changed what it is to be a person in today's world,
1:00.1	hence the name of the book, The Crisis of Narration.
1:03.2	So out of respect to your time, I'll get right into it.
1:05.5	Human beings are often described as narrative creatures.
1:08.5	We've all heard this before.
1:10.1	For our entire history,
1:11.5	stories have been a huge part of the way we relate to the world around us, from tribal elders
1:16.1	that would pass wisdom down from generation to generation, to the stories they tell about the
1:20.8	origins of their tribe, where the people descend from. Fast forward, and you have religious
	...

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