The Hybris of Plants: Reinterpreting Philosophy through Vegetal Life
| dc.contributor.advisor | Vallega-Neu, Daniela | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kerr, Joshua | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-11-23T15:31:07Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-11-23 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation reexamines the place of plants in the history of Western philosophy, drawing on the diverse philosophical approaches of Plato, Aristotle, Goethe, Hegel, and Nietzsche, among others. I suggest that a close reading of these philosophers reveals an aspect of vegetal existence that calls for a fundamental reconceptualization of life as a manner of being: in its ambivalent encounters with philosophy, the vegetative shows itself in terms of what I call hybris. By “hybris” I mean the activity by which the plant relates a proliferative, overflowing growth with a characteristic proportionality by which the plant composes a determinate manner of existence. In Part One, I trace the emergence of “plant hybris” in Goethe and Hegel’s scientific writings and Nietzsche’s philosophy of life. In Part Two, I expand and develop this concept by returning to Plato and Aristotle’s biological works. | en_US |
| dc.description.embargo | 2023-10-11 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/26900 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.title | The Hybris of Plants: Reinterpreting Philosophy through Vegetal Life | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Philosophy | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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