The journal continues to publish translations of chapters of the book by the famous phenomenologist Michael Marder “The Philosopher’s Plants (An Intellectual Herbarium)”. Two of the twelve stories were chosen — “Aristotle's Wheat” and “Avicenna's Celery”. The author analyzes the views of the ancient philosopher Aristotle and the medieval Persian philosopher and physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) on the nature of plants and their place in the diverse world of living beings, showing how the images of wheat and celery become an (...) important part of their philosophical reflections. Marder emphasizes that the ancient scientists were alien to modern systems of biological classification. Each creation occupied its own niche and existed for a specific purpose. However, the contours of these teleologies were not at all what we imagine them to be. For example, for Aristotle, a noble man, a noble animal and a noble plant had more in common than two representatives of the same biological kingdom. In addition, the boundaries between them were quite shaky. A stupid person, unable to follow the strict principles of logic, was literally like a plant. Avicenna discovers in plants the “vegetable soul”, above which he puts the “animal soul”. He finds both of these levels in a person. Awareness of this totality is necessary, according to Avicenna, for genuine self-knowledge and, consequently, for the knowledge of God. The author of the book attempts to answer the question: what if the mixture of similar beings passing into and out of each other, characteristic of the ancient and medieval world, is not a fantastic fiction, but an insightful description of our transgenic present and future? (shrink)

The journal continues to publish translations of individual chapters of the book by the famous phenomenologist Michael Marder "Plants of Philosophers (Intellectual Herbarium)". Out of twelve stories, "Irigaray’s Water Lily" was chosen. The author analyzes the views of a modern French philosopher Luce Irigaray, whose numerous books contain a feminist revision of traditional philosophy and its language. Today, having thrown off the straitjacket of metaphysical reasoning, living thought turns to physicality, marked by finiteness and sexual differences, as well as to (...) the surrounding world, to the rhythms of the earth and the richness of non-Western philosophical traditions. Luce Irigaray's creativity is rooted in all those dimensions of experience that she was able to restore at the sunset of metaphysics. In the work of Irigaray, the vegetable occupies a special place and stimulates the development of her thoughts. Plants provide her with a model of thinking, living and cultivating subjectivity. Cultivation in this case does not mean the formation of the physis in accordance with the predetermined parameters of the mind or the forcible eradication of what grows by itself. On the contrary, cultivating nature, for example, means that we put ourselves at her service, protecting, participating and encouraging myriad plants. Irigaray calls us to listen to the muted vegetative rhythms of our life and thinking, whose growth has been stopped by the prejudices of metaphysics and the arrhythmia of modern existence. Everything that Western philosophers from Aristotle to Hegel rejected and devalued in relation to plants, in her works is lovingly extracted, overestimated and cultivated. (shrink)

Michael Marder, a well-known specialist in environmental philosophy and political theory, studied at universities in Canada and the United States, received a Ph. D. from the New School of Social Research in New York, and taught at the Universities of Georgetown, Saskatchewan, and Washington. He conducted research at the University of Lisbon and served as an associate professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh before becoming a research professor at the University of the Basque Country. M. Marder is a (...) member of the editorial board of journal «Telos» (New York), as well as the editor of four book series: «Political Theory and Contemporary Philosophy», «Critical Plant Studies», «Future Perfect: Images of the Time to Come in Philosophy, Politics, and Cultural Studies» and «Palgrave Studies in Postmetaphysical Thought». Michael Marder works in the phenomenological tradition of continental philosophy. He is the author of books «Grafts: Writings on Plants» (2016), «The Chernobyl Herbarium: Fragments of an Exploded Consciousness» (2016), «Heidegger: Phenomenology, Ecology, Politics» (2018) и «Dump Philosophy: A Phenomenology of Devastation» (2020). Most of his philosophical works are focused on constructing a concept in which plants are viewed as beings with their own form of subjectivity. He is best known for the monograph «Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life» (2013). Marder's book «The Philosopher’s Plant (Intellectual Herbarium)» (2014), from which the prologue «Philosophical Herbarium» and the first chapter «Plato's Plane Tree» are taken for translation, is devoted to the relationship between philosophy and plants. The author believes that philosophy did not pay due attention to plants, and seeks to fill this gap. The book contains twelve stories, each of which relates a famous philosopher to a plant or flower (Plato’s Plane Tree, Avicenna’s Celery, Kant’s Tulip etc.), which, according to Marder, allows a deeper understanding of his philosophical ideas. (shrink)