Writing

A Philosophy of the Plant

Video: Plants have been addressed by philosophers since the beginnings of philosophical history. In present times, new approaches to plants, or more accurately, new vegetal approaches to philosophy, are beginning to emerge in the literature. Spurred by new scientific discoveries of plant capacity and intelligence, thinkers in the Western lineage are revisiting conceptions of plants, which in turn is causing a revisioning of our conceptions of ourselves. How can thinking with plants help us respond to environmental crisis? This talk will review recent literature in plant philosophy and propose a participatory model for relating to our vegetal neighbors.

Laura PustarfiDecember 10, 2017plant studies, integral ecology, trees, philosophyComment

Phenomenological Perspectives on Trees and Plants

Trees are pervasive phenomena. They exist in our imaginations, grace long tracts of the forested landscape worldwide, and emerge as obvious and surreptitious partners throughout our lives. In the United States alone, the ratio of trees to people is above 200 trees per person.[1] Trees are beings which are both older and larger than humans, yet their prolific generativity has been used and overused throughout human history. Humans often view trees as nothing more than a resource for board-feet of lumber or as unwanted guests on valuable land. This stems from a paradigm in which only humans inhabit the realm of living beings with both plants and animals as merely mechanisms at our disposal. As this paradigm has reached its extreme ends, the entire planet has been ushered into a time of ecological crisis characterized by a shifting climate, ocean rise and acidification, and deforestation. This crisis is not only environmental, but is deeply intertwined with a crisis of both social justice and spirituality. A widespread paradigm shift is necessary to reimagine a sustainable world.

Laura PustarfiSeptember 11, 2017spirituality, trees, phenomenology, ecology, philosophyComment

Consciousness: Definitions in the Literature

Consciousness was thrust upon the Western psyche with its first use in the late 17th century. Since that time, the word has continued to circulate among philosophical and lay writings, yet often with more ambiguity than clarity. Consciousness in contemporary meaning goes far beyond the common definitions of perception, reflection, awareness, or an awareness of being aware. The multiple and complex meanings encoded in evolutionary and emancipatory philosophers’ use of the term deserves further study. This comprehensive exam will focus on definitions of consciousness in philosophical history during the 20th and the 21st centuries with an eye towards an ecological understanding of the contemporary term.

Laura PustarfiJuly 17, 2017consciousness, philosophyComment

Dangerous Women: Hypatia and Future Philosophy

It’s dangerous to be a woman with ideas. Women have never been seriously considered as part of the Western philosophical lineage, which is wrapped up with suppression of feminine power, and have too often been forcibly removed from intellectual circles.

Laura PustarfiFebruary 23, 2016equality, philosophy, womenComment

Arboreality: A Partial Phenomenology of Trees 2

love the covers of books. The feel of their softness, or smoothness, or rough paper under my fingertips. The way the cover promises all that’s within. The cover of the book I’m holding is a shiny plastic veneer over the proclaimed title, the letters subtly raised, catching my hand as it grazes the surface. The pages of the book also have their own feel under the glide of my hands, soft, yet barely reminiscent of the pulp where they originated.

Laura PustarfiDecember 19, 2015phenomenology, books, treesComment

Arboreality: A Partial Phenomenology of Trees 1

I enjoy being the type of almost-30- year old woman who climbs trees. On a gently sunny Sunday, I stopped by a beautiful little park overlooking the bay. I sat for a time on the verdant grass where I could best see the buildings and structures that make up the peninsula and the misty marine layer covering the bay. In the distance, Mt. Diablo rose like a mirage on the eastern horizon. Eventually, I decided to climb a tree.

Laura PustarfiDecember 19, 2015phenomenology, trees, ecologyComment

Reconsidering Interiors as Forests

Worldwide, deforestation has the potential to cause unforeseen changes especially in light of climate change. This has lead me to question where all of the trees we continually cut down go and how they show up in our lives. In the modern West, we are constantly surrounded by trees and wood products in our daily lives, yet we rarely consider them as such. Many wood or wood-based products are concealed by a veneer of plastic or within the folds of fabric. My own mediations on my home as a middle-class American living in a wood-framed condo illustrate the shift in consciousness that I propose around the forests of our homes.

Laura PustarfiNovember 17, 2015environment, climate change, forest, treesComment

What Barfield Thought

To take a broad sweep, the Inkling’s project revolved around the relation and tension between rationality and imagination. The Inkling’s were reacting against the hyper-rationality in England in their time, as exemplified through World War I and II, and taking cues from the Romantics to argue for the value of imagination. However, the argument was never for imagination instead of rationality, but the inter-relational dance between both rational faculties and imaginative faculties as two avenues in pursuit of truth. Of the four primary Inkling members, Owen Barfield provided the most developed theoretical treatment of the truth giving potentialities of imagination.

Laura PustarfiNovember 17, 2015creativity, Barfield, participation, consciousnessComment

It Matters What Paradigms Paradigm Paradigms

Laura PustarfiNovember 17, 2015climate change, systems thinking, paradigm shiftComment

The Quest for Integral Ecology

Integral ecology is an emerging paradigm in ecological theory and practice, with multiple and varied integral approaches to ecology having been proposed in recent decades. A common aim of integral ecologies is to cross boundaries between disciplines (humanities, social sciences, and biophysical sciences) in efforts to develop comprehensive understandings of and responses to the intertwining of nature, culture, and consciousness in ecological issues. This article presents an exploration of the different approaches that have been taken in articulating an integral ecology. Along with a historical overview of the notion of integral ecology, we present an exposition of some of the philosophical and religious visions that are shared by the diversity of integral ecologies.

Laura PustarfiSeptember 1, 2013integral ecologyComment