Menu
Donate
SIGN IN
Email
Save
Tweet
Share

Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!

Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.

Amid the chaos of being, Nietzsche believed that plants offer us inspiration for living

Aristotle thought that plants possess what he called a ‘vegetative soul’. Centred on growing and reproducing, this primordial, unthinking state of being was encompassed and far surpassed by the ‘rational soul’ of humans. Friedrich Nietzsche, however, believed that, in the overwhelming confusion of considering how we might live, there was much we could learn from plants – deeply rooted in the ground and yet limitlessly expressive as they are. Borrowing from some of Nietzsche’s lesser-known writings, this short video essay might just inspire you to look at a plant growing through a crack in the ‘inhospitable ground’ – and perhaps even Nietzsche himself – in a new light.

Video by The DOX Channel

Writer: Zoe Almon Job

Animator: Theo Garcia

13 April 2021
Email
Save
Tweet
Share

Aeon is not-for-profit and free for everyone

Make a donation

Get Aeon straight to your inbox

Join our newsletter
Eliminative materialism | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no

5 minutes

Eleonore Stump on the problem of evil | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of religion

How a devout Catholic philosopher approaches the problem of evil

8 minutes

Drawings of my BF | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love

7 minutes

Our ark | Aeon
Save

video

Thinkers and theories

Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created?

13 minutes

Ndagukunda déjà (I love you, already) | Aeon
Save

video

Family life

In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy

21 minutes

The diver | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

A decade after his wife was swept away in a tsunami, Yasuo still searches the sea

9 minutes

Three ways to think about free will | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

We may never settle the ‘free will’ debate, but tapping into it is still worthwhile

32 minutes

Still life | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

An enigmatic ‘story of consciousness’ told through 19th-century engravings

7 minutes

Ain’t no time for women | Aeon
Save

video

Politics and government

Join the spirited debate at a women’s hair salon before a pivotal election in Tunisia

19 minutes