Plant Thinking. The Philosophy of Vegetative Life

On the outskirts of the outskirts of philosophy dwell non-human (and non-animal) beings, among which are plants. And if contemporary philosophers usually refrain from posing ontological and ethical questions related to vegetative life, then Michael Marder brings this life to the forefront by deconstructing metaphysics in the pages of his book. The author reveals existential features in the behavior of plants and the vegetative legacy in human thought — the traces of humans in plants and the traces of plants in humans — in order to defend the capacity of vegetation to resist the logic of totalization and to transcend the narrow confines of instrumental thinking. By reconstructing the life of plants "after metaphysics," Marder emphasizes their unique temporality, freedom, and material-practical knowledge, or wisdom. In his view, "plant thinking" is a non-cognitive, non-ideational, and non-formal mode of thinking inherent to plants, as well as a process of returning human thought to its roots and likening this thought to that of plants.