Overview

Translated into English for the first time, My Animals and Flowers bring forth Theodor Lessing’s visionary philosophy of need in an idiosyncratic series of musings on the natural world, which range from light-hearted to darkly shadowed. Full of imagination, wit, and insight into the nature and history of living species, they demonstrate Lessing’s brilliant ability to combine biological observation with social, psychological, political, historical, educational, and above all, philosophical thoughts. Grimly pessimistic about human society, Lessing found both a mirror and a refuge in the world of animals and flowers. In observing nature and attributing all type of human characteristics to animals and plants, he exposes the fusing of nature and culture, and – in dialogue with the natural world – confronts a whole cluster of political questions from the question of equality for women and marital fidelity to the pollution of cities and man’s destruction of the environment. Much of this work, sketching out the implications of an atomic age for example, has proved uncannily prophetic. To read this book is to enter into a curious and deeply sensitive world, in which to peer down at a colony of ants is to be reminded of ‘giant nations, each in conflict with the others’, and to catch a glimpse of bright poppies in a cornfield is to be submerged in a chain of thoughts from St Augustine to David Hume. Amongst the autobiographical reflections, Lessing weaves in critical observations of Western civilization, and critique of human culture as a destructive and disfiguring influence in the natural world. Ultimately, his philosophy of need shows how civilization comes at the expense of nature, ringing true with the climate of our times.

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9781350526785

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Reviews

These two philosophical writings on natural phenomena are among the author's most excellent texts. My Animals not only combines humorous portraits of fauna, but also reflects Lessing's reflections on humanity and the world in which we live. The same applies to Flowers, where the precise observer provides an insight into the enchanting flora and the special characteristics of each plant. This work is undoubtedly one of the most special reflections on the world of animals and flowers. * Dr. Elke-Vera Kotowski, Chief Curator and Associated Member of the Moses Mendelssohn Center, University of Potsdam *

Author Information

Theodor Lessing (1872-1933) was a German Jewish philosopher known for opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his book on Jewish self-hatred. Peter Appelbaum (translator) is Emeritus Professor of Pathology at Pennsylvania State University, USA. During his retirement years he has published fourteen books and translations about Jews in Central Europe during World War I and thereafter. He was awarded the (London) Times Literary Supplement - Risa Domb Porjes Prize in 2019 for his translation of Avigdor Hameiri’s Hell on Earth. He has published two previous translations of Theodor Lessing’s works: Jewish Self-Hate (2021), and Enemy in the Country: Satires and Novellas (2022). Benton Arnovitz is director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA. He is also an editor, literary agent, and retired publishing director.

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