Plants as persons : a philosophical botany /

Hall (Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) attempts to uncover the intellectual underpinnings of the treatment and mistreatment of plants in Western and non-Western philosophies alike. He argues that plants are nonhuman persons--an insight presumably suppressed in Occidental thought and most clearly expressed in animist and pagan traditions. Although a study such as this is long overdue, Hall's book suffers from a variety of methodological and ontological lapses, undermining its potential academic contribution. Rather than a "philosophical botany," it offers an "ideological botany," wherein terms are not specified and basic philosophical questions--what is a plant? what is meant by personhood? is autonomy an indisputable value?--are not raised. As a result, the author often conflates personhood with individuality, projects human and animal features (such as the brain) onto vegetal beings, and is unable to reconcile autonomy with relations of dependence. Additionally, the exercise in comparative philosophy is botched due to a direct application of Western terms, including "substance," "person," and the like to non-Western modes of thinking. Summing Up: Not recommended. M. V. Marder University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz