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The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
I saw a tree whose every little branch expanded and swelled with sympathy for the sun,” she writes. “I was made distinctly aware of the presence of something kindred to me.” Ailanthus altissima is often considered an invasive species. Bennett’s musings have an ethical component: if a nuisance tree, or a dead tree, or a dead rat is my kin, then ever... See more
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
Perhaps the New Age crystal enthusiast and the experimental scientist have something in common.
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
If you encounter somebody that is different from you, maybe, if you’re good at lingering for a moment or two in wonder at that person, you can postpone the moment of fear or rejection,” she told me. The subtitle to “Vibrant Matter”—“a political ecology of things”—hints at an interpersonal politics: in her view, politics should always include a sens
... See moreMorgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
“I was struck by what Stephen Jay Gould called the ‘excruciating complexity and intractability’ of nonhuman bodies,” Bennett writes. “But, in being struck, I realized that the capacity of these bodies was not restricted to a passive ‘intractability’ but also included the ability to make things happen, to produce effects.” Bennett likes to reference... See more
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
Human beings have a lot of difficult work to do if we’re to learn to recognize the inherent worth of all vibrant matter.
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
Non-hoarders can disregard the inherent vibrancy of matter because we live in a modern world in which the categories of matter and life are kept separate. “The quarantines of matter and life encourage us to ignore the vitality of matter and the lively powers of material formations
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
“Even if, as I believe, the vitality of matter is real, it will be hard to discern it, and, once discerned, hard to keep focussed on,” Bennett writes. “I have come to see how radical a project it is to think vital materiality.” It’s not just that concentration can be wearisome. Bennett had shown me that picture of the dead rats for a reason: being ... See more
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
Bennett describes herself as something of a minimalist—but her minimalism is driven by a sense of the agency of things. “I don’t want to have such a clamor around,” she told me.
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
take perspectives that seem implausible and find the good intuitions embodied in them, and then go with it
Morgan Meis • The Philosopher Who Believes in Living Things
Bennett’s musings have an ethical component: if a nuisance tree, or a dead tree, or a dead rat is my kin, then everything is kin—even a piece of trash. And I’m more likely to value things that are kindred to me, seeing them as notable and worthy in themselves