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