The Philosopher's Plant

September 8, 2014
In this charming, if far-fetched, book Marder (Phenomena-Critique-Logos: The Project of Critical Phenomenology) asserts that philosophy has not properly examined philosophy from the perspective of botanical life, endeavoring to rectify this with a ludic stroll through the “botany of philosophy.” Each chapter focuses on one of 12 canonical figures of Western philosophy, from Plato to Luce Irigaray, and dissects any minute allusion to flora as a proper synecdoche for the thinker’s entire philosophical project. For example, Leibniz’s claim that no two blades of grass are identical and each has its role in the perfection of the universe is embellished through theoretical legerdemain to make an argument that each plant possesses an indispensable and unique interpretation of the world. Marder draws conclusions from this anthropomorphizing slippage in various ways: plants have feelings, plants have thoughts, and (therefore) plants have rights to not be subjected to violence or murder. Sympathetic readers will find this a provocative delight. Others more skeptically inclined may still enjoy the accessible romp through the garden of ideas, and may even come away with a perspective slightly greener than what they began with. Those entirely in line with Marder are likely rare flowers, but anyone can find something of note or amusement here.

Starred review from November 15, 2014

Philosophy's privileging of reason has come at the expense of nonhuman forms of life, but most especially it has excluded plant life from the realm of moral concern. Motivated by a conviction that "philosophy cannot be left untouched by...the ecocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries," Marder (Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy, Univ. of the Basque Country; Plant-Thinking) confronts philosophical denigration of the vegetal. In chronological order, he recounts various botanical specimens noted by a dozen philosophers from antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus) and the Middle Ages (Augustine, Avicenna, Maimonides), through modernity (Leibniz, Kant, Hegel) to the postmodern era (Heidegger, Derrida, Irigaray). Informed by recent botanical research and a solid grasp of the primary and secondary philosophical sources, Marder demonstrates how attending to the plants on the margins of the philosophers' reflections subverts their carefully constructed systems of meaning. VERDICT Conceptions of the relations of humans to plant life have changed remarkably over time, and, for plant's (and human's) sake, need to change now. Philosophically informed readers will reap the greatest harvest from Marder's fruitful inquiries, while philosophical novices will sometimes find the undergrowth thick and slow going, but all who get a taste of this succulent study will find much food for thought.--Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL

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