A philosophical perspective on plants.
Emanuele Coccia, Associate Professor in the History of Philosophy at the EHESS in Paris, presents his book The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture, published in English by Polity Press (2019).
In The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (Polity Press, 2019), Emanuele Coccia reimagines plants as the true mediators of life on Earth. Rather than passive organisms, they are portrayed as active agents that shape the atmosphere, sustain other forms of life, and dissolve the boundaries between body and environment.
Coccia’s key idea of “mixture” challenges Western notions of individuality and separation: life, he argues, is an ongoing exchange in which every being participates. Through poetic and philosophical reflections on the leaf, the root, and the flower, he shows how plants embody openness, interconnectedness, and transformation.
Ultimately, Coccia calls for a new philosophy of nature: one that acknowledges that the air we breathe is a living medium shared by all, and that life itself is not an individual adventure but an ongoing act of mixture — an interpenetration of all beings.
Voices from the Critics:
“The Life of Plants is a work of rare philosophical imagination. Coccia manages to merge poetry, ecology, and metaphysics into a single, luminous vision of life as connection.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
“A profound and beautifully written meditation that invites us to think with plants rather than about them. Coccia’s vegetal philosophy changes the way we conceive of life itself.” – Philosophy Today
Video Recommendation:
I would also recommend watching the following video — a conversation between Emanuele Coccia and Alberto Parisi (Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at Harvard University). In this dialogue, they discuss the personal and intellectual origins of The Life of Plants, its place within the so-called “plant turn”, and some of the book’s most fascinating and provocative ideas.
Image Source: @ 2019 Polity Press
