The philosopher's plant : an intellectual herbarium /

Marder (Univ. of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain) further buttresses the controversial reflections he previously expressed in his Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (CH, Sep'13, 51-0279). There, he emphasized the nature and ethical significance of learning and growing within the environment of plants. In The Philosopher's Plant, Marder inveighs against Western philosophy's systematic lack of appreciation for the significance of plants in sustaining human life and thought. Even so, he develops a metaphorical and suggestive analysis associating the thought of 12 Western philosophers with 12 different plant varieties. Much of the originality of the work resides in his imaginative concretization of metaphors and allusions in order to reshape readers' philosophical and cultural attitudes toward plant life. Critics of deconstructive philosophical analyses undoubtedly will have difficulty with Marder's metaphorical reifications and conceptual mash-ups. Nevertheless, with these infelicities put aside, his "interactive web of associations" among authors and botanical specimens provides provocative insight into the significance of plant life in the evolution of philosophical thought. The book was imaginatively and insightfully illustrated by the gifted Mathilde Roussel. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Lee C. Archie, Lander University

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. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Starred Review. 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 (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.