36. Thinking with plants – on Hildegard of Bingen’s ecological theology // MICHAEL MARDER

What can we learn from plants? 

In Western thinking, plants have usually been seen as the most lowly beings, fixed in one place and without capacity for thinking. But many cultures have known – and modern science is confirming – that plants carry their own kind of vibrant intelligence. They communicate, interpret and elaborate – could it be that we humans are more plant-like than we tend to believe? 

In the 12th century, the mystic Hildegard of Bingen wrote about viriditas, a kind of capacity for self-renewal and vitality expressed most clearly in the vegetal realm. In today’s episode  I speak to philosopher Michael Marder about Hildegard’s ecological theology and what we might learn from plants. 

Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at University of the Basque Country, and his work spans the fields of environmental philosophy and ecological thought, political theory, and phenomenology. 

LINKS

Michael Marder website (free articles, book overviews)

Green Mass: The Ecological Theology of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Pyropolitics: Fire and the political

Michael’s Substack

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