Branches: A Philosophy of Time, Event and Advent

Description

Despite being one of France's most enduring and popular philosophers, Branches is the first English translation of what has been identified as Michel Serres' key text on humanism. In attempting to reconcile humanity and nature, Serres examines how human history 'branches' off from its origin story. Using the metaphor of a branch springing from the stem and arguing that the branch's originality derives its format, Serres identifies dogmatic philosophy as the stem, while philosophy as the branch represents its inventive, shape-shifting, or interdisciplinary elements. In Branches, Serres provides a unique reading of the history of thought and removes the barriers between science, culture, art and religion. His fluency and this fluidity of subject matter combine here to make a book suitable for students of Continental philosophy, post-humanism, the medical humanities and philosophical science, while providing any reader with a wider understanding of the world in which they find themselves.

Michel Serres was Professor in the History of Science at Stanford University, USA and a member of the Academie Francaise, France. A renowned and popular philosopher, he was a prize-winning author of essays and books, such as The Five Senses (2008), Genesis(1995), and Biogee (2013). Randolph Burks is an independent scholars based in China. He specializes in phenomenology and philosophies of the body and nature and has translated several works by Michel Serres, including Biogea, Variations on the Body (2012), The Foundations Trilogy (Bloomsbury 2015-17) and The Hermaphrodite (forthcoming)

Branches takes its place alongside Hominescence and The Incandescent as one of the most important books of Michel Serres's later career. In typical Serresian fashion, it brings together science, history, and religion to argue that our contemporary world must undergo an epochal change not only in our collective political, social, and environmental behavior but also in the latent collective mentalities that underlie. A major testament from a major philosopher now available in an excellent English translation. * Robert Pogue Harrison, Professor of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, Stanford University, USA * Branches is one of most commanding and at the same time nimble works of Michel Serres's extraordinary late period. It is a breathtaking series of meditations on the balance between the rationalising force of 'format', and the unpredictable buddings and branchings of 'event'. Its majestic opening pages, moving from maritime risk to accountancy, geometry, typography, opera and celestial mechanics, typify the affluent comprehensiveness of Serres's philosophical vision; while its spurts and sprints of invention, perfectly mimed in Randolph Burks's lithe and wise translation, jubilantly salute the force of the unlooked-for. * Steven Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English, University of Cambridge, UK *