phytophenomenology en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bʰuHyéti Ancient Greek φῠ́ω (phŭ́ō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek φῠτός (phŭtós)nom. Ancient Greek φῠτόν (phŭtón)der. English phyto- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti Proto-Hellenic *pʰáňňō Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō) Ancient Greek φαινόμενον (phainómenon)bor. Late Latin phaenomenonder. English phenomenon Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *lóǵos Proto-Hellenic *lógos Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā)bor. Latin -logialbor. French -logiebor. English -logy English phenomenology English phytophenomenology Coined by Ikerbasque philosopher Michael Marder in 2012, from phyto- + phenomenology
Meanings
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(uncountable) The interdisciplinary study of plant intelligence, drawing on phenomenology, botany and population ecology.
This collocation, Marder posits, may have less to do with plants’ actual botanical mysteries and our human investigations into their biological truths and more to do with the ways that they inhabit and make sense of the world, what he calls their ‘phytophenomenology’, an extension of ecophenomenological work by scholars such as David Wood.
2018, Katherine E. Bishop, “‘When ‘tis Night, Death is Green’: Vegetal Time in Nineteenth-Century Econoir”, in Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, volume 22, number 1, →DOI, page 8:Intertwined with Michael Pollan's thesis in The Botany of Desire on plant agency reversing traditional anthropocentric causation, Jitterbug Perfume encourages a closer look at plant biology as well as what Michael Marder names phytophenomenology, accentuating the superficiality of plant-thinking as an unexpected strength that might also benefit human comportment.
2020, Yogi Hale Hendlin, “Sunlight as a Photosynthetic Information Technology: Becoming Plant in Tom Robbins's Jitterbug Perfume”, in Katherine E. Bishop et al., editors, Plants in Science Fiction: Speculative Vegetation, University of Wales Press, page 153:This article provided no more than the prolegomena to the fruitful interdisciplinary combination of phenomenology, botany and population ecology—an approach we may term phytophenomenology.
2012, Michael Marder, “Plant intentionality and the phenomenological framework of plant intelligence”, in Plant Signaling & Behavior, volume 7, number 11, →DOI, page 7: