Nourishment - by Corine Pelluchon

Book Synopsis

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 Ricoeur. 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.

Review Quotes

In this original and important book, Corrine 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.

About the Author

Corine Pelluchon is Professor of Philosophy at Paris-Est-Marne-La-Vallée, France. She is author of Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism: Another Reason, Another Enlightenment (2015) which won the Francois Furet Prize.

Justin E. H. Smith is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris 7, Denis Diderot, France. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, n+1, Slate, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Smith is also an editor-at-large of Cabinet Magazine.