Nourishment : A Philosophy of the Political Body

This book seeks to replace the philosophy of the subject, underlying contemporary contractualism, with another philosophy. The ethics of vulnerability, which emphasizes the category of passivity, is the first phase in this philosophy of corporality, further supplemented in Nourishment by a philosophy of “living from,” which takes the materiality of our existence seriously: hunger, oikos, space and time, place, and enjoyment. Based on a radical phenomenology of sensations, this book takes inspiration from the French philosophers who were able to suggest an alternative to Heidegger's ontology of concern, such as Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Paul Ricœur. Going beyond the dualism between nature and culture, subject and object, Pelluchon aims to determine the existential structures that break with Heidegger's ontology of concern and the philosophies of freedom that serve as a foundation for liberal political theory. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction The corporeality of the subject A phenomenology of nourishment Revising the existential analytic: Ontology and politics Part One: A phenomenology of nourishment Chapter 1: Living from Enjoyment The gourmet cogito Taste The tea ceremony The terrestrial condition, the localization, and birth Chapter 2: Space, milieu, and other existents The geographicity of being, the ecumene and mediance Dwelling, building, cultivating Empathy, communication with animals, and sharing of the common world Zoopolis and justice towards animals Eating meat and the love of animals Chapter 3: Eating disorders Hunger as the starting point of ethics A problem of justice, not of shortage: The capabilities approach Food ethics and policy The phenomenology of nourishment and agriculture Anorexia, bulimia, and obesity: A painful orality Part Two: To institute a common world Chapter 4: A new social contract Hobbes’s artificialism, or the social contract as a response to violence Locke’s moderate liberalism: Autonomy without waste or expropriation Rousseau’s general will and the sense of obligation Rawls’s original position and the new social contract The principles of justice as the sharing of nourishment Chapter 5: Reconstructing democracy Supplementing the representative system The hypothesis of a third chamber, and the role of experts From competitive democracy to deliberative democracy The heterogeneity of the public sphere and participation Culture and democracy: Intellectuals, media, and the schools Chapter 6: Beyond national boundaries In the shadow of the bomb Globalization, sovereignty, and methodological cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitical rights since Kant Global civil society and cosmopolitical democracy Imaginary, utopia, and the heritage of the Enlightenment Conclusion The opening of the possible and conviviality Love of life A radical phenomenology of sensing and a political constructivism Notes Introduction Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Part Two Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Conclusion Index In her new book, Corine Pelluchon argues that the dichotomy between nature and culture privileges the latter. She laments that the political system protects the sovereignty of the human and leaves them immune to impending environmental disaster. Using the phenomenological writings of French philosophers like Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Paul Ricœur, Pelluchon contends that human beings have to recognise humanity's dependence upon the natural world for survival and adopt a new philosophy of existence that advocates for animal welfare and ecological preservation.In an extension of Heidegger's ontology of concern, Pelluchon declares that this dependence is not negative or a sign of weakness. She argues instead, that we are nourished by the natural world and that the very idea of nourishment contains an element of pleasure. This sustenance comforts humans and gives their lives taste. Pelluchon's new philosophy claims then, that eating has an affective, social and cultural dimension, but that most importantly it is a political act. It solidifies the eternal link between human beings and animals, and warns that the human consumption of animals and other natural resources impacts upon humanity's future. La 4e de couv. indique : "In this original and important book, Corine Pelluchon argues for nothing less than a new social contract that does justice to the biosphere, to all life, especially other animals, as well as human life, and to future generations. On the basis of a phenomenology of food and nourishment, she shows how freedom depends on the "love of life" and on sharing what nourishes with others. Pelluchon also takes up the practical challenge of reimagining democratic institutions to sustain this ethics of life. Anyone interested in questions of justice and environmental or food ethics should read this book."