Through Vegetal Being

Two Philosophical Perspectives

Luce Irigaray, Michael Marder

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780231541510
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Literary Letters

Blossoming from a correspondence between Luce Irigaray and Michael Marder, Through Vegetal Being is an intense personal, philosophical, and political meditation on the significance of the vegetal for our lives, our ways of thinking, and our relations with human and nonhuman beings. The vegetal world has the potential to rescue our planet and our species and offers us a way to abandon past metaphysics without falling into nihilism. Luce Irigaray has argued in her philosophical work that living and coexisting are deficient unless we recognize sexuate difference as a crucial dimension of our existence. Michael Marder believes the same is true for vegetal difference.

Irigaray and Marder consider how plants contribute to human development by sustaining our breathing, nourishing our senses, and keeping our bodies and minds alive. They note the importance of returning to ancient Greek tradition and engaging with Eastern teachings to revive a culture closer to nature. As a result, we can reestablish roots when we are displaced and recover the vital energy we need to improve our sensibility and relation to others. This generative discussion points toward a more universal way of becoming human that is embedded in the vegetal world.

INDEX

Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.

Absolute, 17, 19, 39, 42, 61, 67, 84, 94, 120, 148, 170

Accomplishment, 35, 54, 80, 83, 88, 95, 115, 145, 187, 197–98

Aeschylus, 37, 104n3

Agni 30, 32

Ailanthus, 149

Alienation, 23, 130

Allergy, 129–31, 133–34

Alteration, 143–45

Alternation, 142–45

Alterity, 101. See also Other, the

Anaximenes, 137

Antigone (Sophocles), x, 16–20, 25, 33, 65, 67, 74, 126–27

Appearance, 24, 28, 30, 32, 39, 47, 74, 91–92, 101, 124, 142, 167, 169–71, 179; co-, 169, 171–72; coming-to-, 167–69, 172; non-, 168

Appropriation, 3, 23, 35, 45–46, 50, 53, 61–62, 80, 83, 88–89, 124–27, 132, 134, 169, 179, 188–89, 200, 204–5, 210

Arendt, Hannah, 169–70, 198

Aristotle, 33, 38, 75–76, 125, 136–38, 153, 162, 167, 175, 184–87, 204–5, 207–8

Art, 4, 43, 125, 159, 162, 187; of living, 195, 197, 205

Articulation, 75, 93, 192–94, 205; dis-, 182, 193

Atmosphere, 22, 27–28, 36, 43, 50, 117, 126, 130, 132–33, 136, 140, 199

Attention, 17, 29, 47, 60, 86, 132, 155–60, 182; continuous, 158; convoked...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Preface
• Luce Irigaray
• Michael Marder
• Index