In hmolscience, Jane Bennett (1957-) is an American political theorist turned thing philosopher noted for []
Overview
In 2005, Bennett, in her “In Parliament with Things”, opened to Bruno Latour’s Pandora’s Hope, and therein seems to have begun to digress into some type of “thing theory” of human values. [1]
In 2009, Bennett, in interview, on the topic of “Agency, Nature and Emergent Properties”, stated the following: [2]
“What counts as the material of vital materialism? Is it only human labour and the socio-economic entities made by men using raw materials? Or is materiality more potent than that? How can political theory do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in every event and every stabilization? Is there a form of theory that can acknowledge a certain ‘thing-power’, that is, the irreducibility of objects to the human meanings or agendas they also embody?”
In 2010, Bennett, in her Vibrant Matter: a Political Ecology of Thing, outlined a “vital materiality” theory, which is code for living matter theory, which some, such as Rita Felski, dub as “new materialism”, e.g. the “vital power” of “things” such as landfills, chemical streams, omega-3 fatty acids, etc.; the following is her abstract: [3]
“Bennett examines the political and theoretical implications of vital materialism through extended discussions of commonplace things and physical phenomena including stem cells, fish oils, electricity, metal, and trash. She reflects on the vital power of material formations such as landfills, which generate lively streams of chemicals, and omega-3 fatty acids, which can transform brain chemistry and mood. Along the way, she engages with the concepts and claims of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Darwin, Adorno, and Deleuze, disclosing a long history of thinking about vibrant matter in Western philosophy, including attempts by Kant, Bergson, and the embryologist Hans Driesch to name the “vital force” inherent in material forms. Bennett concludes by sketching the contours of a “green materialist” ecophilosophy.”
she seems to be trying to sell neo-green materialism ecophilosopy, situated on an empty “neo-neovitalism” platform; which is what Brown seems to be pointing out, in respect to the incorrigibleness of the term life, and in turn the underlying foundationless of Bennett's well-mindedness in aim position.
Quotes | On
The following are quotes on Bennett:
“The problem for biology, then, is that it is constantly on the cusp of either reduction to physical chemistry or ideological capture by metaphysics. The concept of ‘life’ tends to get lost between explanations of biological organisms referring either to molecular interactions or to an irreducible systemic wholeness [e.g. Behe]. And because it gets lost, it is prone to over-extension as the je ne sais quoi (Ѻ) which accounts for the substance of the biological precisely through its indetermination. Should we have done with life? If we deploy this concept as a means of pretending we know what we mean when we do not, then we probably should. And this is perhaps the dominant para-philosophical use of this concept today, as it is deployed by actor-network theory spin-offs and vitalist Spinozisms extolling the so-called ‘life of things’. As, for example, in the ‘vital materialism’ of Jane Bennett.”
— Nathan Brown (2011), “Introduction” to the To Have Done With Life conference, Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, Croatia [4]
References
1. Bennett, Jane. (2005). “In Parliament with Things”, in: Radical democracy: Politics Between Abundance and Lack (§8:133-) (editors: Lars Tønder, Lasse Thomassen). Manchester University Press.
2. Khan, Gulshuan, Bennett, Jane. (2009). “Agency, Nature and Emergent Properties: an Interview with Jane Bennett” (Ѻ), Dialogues with Political Theorists, Contemporary Political Theory, 8:90-105, Feb.
3. Bennett, Jane. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (pdf). Duke University Press.
4. (a) Brown, Nathan. (2011). “Introduction” (Ѻ), WordPress, DoneWithLife.mi2.hr.
(b) Brown, Nathan and Milat, Petar. (2011). “Symposium: To Have Done with Life: Vitalism and Antivitalism in Contemporary Philosophy”, Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, Croatia, Jun 17-19.
External links
● Jane Bennett (political theorist) – Wikipedia.
