The Philosopher's Plant: An Intellectual Herbarium

269 Pages·2014·2.37 MB·English

by  Michael Marder

THE PHILOSOPHER’S PLANT
AN INTELLECTUAL HERBARIUM
MICHAEL MARDER
DRAWINGS BY MATHILDE ROUSSEL
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press All rights reserved E-ISBN 978-0-231-53813-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marder, Michael, 1980– The philosopher’s
plant : an intellectual herbarium / Michael Marder; with drawings by Mathilde Roussel.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16902-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-16903-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN
978-0-231-53813-8 (e-book) 1. Botany—Philosophy. 2. Botany—History.
3. Plants—Adaptation. 4. Human-plant relationships. I. Title.
QK46.M36 2014
580—dc23
2014010349
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
COVER DESIGN: MATHILDE ROUSSEL
BOOK DESIGN & TYPESETTING: VIN DANG
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired
or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
For Patrícia—
To grow together…
All my botanical walks, the varied impressions made on me by the places where I have seen
striking things, the ideas they have stirred in me, and the incidents connected to them have all left
me with the impressions, which are renewed by the sight of the plants I collected in those very
places…. [A]ll I have to do is open my herbarium and it quickly transports me there.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, REVERIES OF THE SOLITARY WALKER
[The] flowers are of course dry and life has vanished from them. But what on earth is a living thing
if the spirit of man does not breathe life into it? What is speechless but that to which man does not
lend his speech?
G. W. F. HEGEL, LETTER TO NANETTE ENDEL, JULY 2, 1797
There is, absent from every garden, a dried flower in a book…
JACQUES DERRIDA, MARGINS OF PHILOSOPHY
Not enough time to come and go around a thought, not enough time to make the herbarium of
thoughts…
HÉLÈNE CIXOUS, MANNA: FOR THE MANDELSTAMS, FOR THE MANDELAS
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PROLOGUE: HERBARIUM PHILOSOPHICUM
Part I. Ancient Plant-Souls
1 / Plato’s Plane Tree
IN THE SHADE OF A PLANE TREE
HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY PLANTS
DESIRING PLANTS, ROOTED ANIMALS, AND OTHER IDEAS
TWO GROUNDS, TWO PLANTS, TWO WORLDS?
2 / Aristotle’s Wheat
PHILOSOPHER’S BREAD (AND BUTTER)
POTENTIAL AND ACTUAL PLANTS
ON BEING ALL YOU CAN BE (WITHOUT BECOMING A PLANT)
CHAOTIC PROLIFERATIONS: COLLAPSING DISTINCTIONS
3 / Plotinus’ Anonymous “Great Plant”
A PORTRAIT OF THE WORLD AS PLANT
TRAVERSING THE LEVELS OF THE VEGETAL MIND
TO STEM OUT THE PLANT IN YOU!
THE REVENGE OF THE PLANT
Part II. Medieval Plant-Instruments
4 / Augustine’s Pears
WHEN A SAINT STOLE PEARS
THE SHEER IMPOSSIBILITY OF ENJOYING FRUIT
ANTIVEGETAL ETHICS: REPRESSING A WEEPING FIG TREE
MATTER SPIRITUALIZED: THE WOOD OF THE CROSS, DIVINE ORDER, AND RUSTLING
LEAVES
5 / Avicenna’s Celery
IMMODERATE PHILOSOPHERS, EXCESSIVE PLANTS
THE FEUDAL ORDER OF THE VEGETAL SOUL, OR ARISTOTELIANISM WITH A TWIST
WHAT DO PLANTS LOVE?
THE APORIA OF KNOWING OURSELVES (AS PLANTS)
6 / Maimonides’ Palm Tree
ARBOR SACRA
“A PLANT OR A MINERAL” OR GOD
RITUALS OF PURIFICATION: THE PLANT, THE GROUND, AND A PERFORATED POT
AGAINST A TALKING TREE, OR THE UNFINISHED WORK OF DISENCHANTMENT
Part III. Modern Plant-Images
7 / Leibniz’s Blades of Grass
IN THE BUSHES OF A ROYAL GARDEN
A GARDEN WITHIN A GARDEN: THE LABYRINTHS OF VEGETAL INFINITY
WHAT DOES A PLANT EXPRESS?
THE PLANT AS MONAD: A THEORETICAL CONUNDRUM
8 / Kant’s Tulip
A FLOWER AGAINST THE SYSTEM
WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT PLANTS?
WHAT CAN WE DO WITH PLANTS?
WHAT CAN PLANTS DO TO US?
9 / Hegel’s Grapes
FROM GRAPES TO SPIRIT(S)
ADVENTURES IN VEGETABLE DIALECTICS
THE SEX LIFE OF PLANTS, OR BEYOND OPPOSITIONALITY
THE VEGETABLE KERNEL OF THE DIALECTICAL SHELL
Part IV. Postmodern Plant-Subjects
10 / Heidegger’s Apple Tree
FACE TO FACE WITH A BLOSSOMING TREE
THE BLOSSOMING OF BEING
A PLANT’S “BEING-IN-THE-WORLD”
DO PLANTS DIE?
11 / Derrida’s Sunflowers
THREE SCENES OF READING PLANTS
PLASTIC PLANTS, WASTED SEEDS, AND OTHER USELESS ARTIFACTS
PHYTOPHALLOGOCENTRISM
THE TROUBLE WITH THE SUPPLEMENT AND THE PLACE OF PLANTS
12 / Irigaray’s Water Lily
CONTEMPLATING A FLOWER WITH BUDDHA
FLOWERING-WITH
VEGETAL FIDELITIES
“WE STILL FALL SHORT OF THE HUMAN”
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX