philosophy

James Hatley’s article for the ‘Living Lexicon for the Environmental Humanities’ section discusses the horizon of the ‘Aion’ (as formulated in the four geological eons), and the fact that every species is linked in genetic kinship.

In the special section titled “Living Lexicon for the Environmental Section,” Hugo Reinert writes about the history of sacrifice and parses it as violence.

In looking back at Henri Bergson and Samuel Butler through contemporary art, Susan Ballard suggests that in the art gallery can provide an opportunity to locate ourselves in the place of others. She argues that sympathy read alongside machinic evolution can offer a new approach to the ecological disaster of species extinction.

In his article for the special section “Living Lexicon for the Environmental Humanities,” Cameron Muir asks, “how do we respond to the broken, as scholars, writers, artists? And what can the broken tell us?”

In the special section “Provocations,” Noel Castree reviews the growing stream of publications authored by humanists about the Holocene’s proclaimed end. He argues that these publications evidence environmental humanists as playing two roles with respect to the geoscientific claims they are reacting to: the roles of “inventor-discloser” or “deconstructor-critic.”

In this review essay, Jennifer Hamilton responds to Michael Marder’s book, Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (2013), exploring three of Marder’s concepts, plant “nourishment,” “desire” and “language,” through readings of Gabrielle de Vietri’s installation The Garden of Bad Flowers (2014), the story of Daphne from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 CE) and Alice’s encounter with talking flowers in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).

In this commentary, Rich Hutchings outlines his personal vision for the Environmental Humanities.

The Seed Box is an international collaboratory for the environmental humanities.