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This essay explores Michel Serres's "poetic dream of another epistemology" connected to an anti-Cartesian, sensorial view of knowledge. The philosopher alludes to empirical studies from the field of cognitive neuroscience, which have demonstrated that the mind and body are interwoven as part of one integrated entity, in order to propose an alternative epistemological framework for (re-) envisioning the nature of knowledge. The philosopher's rehabilitation of our senses illustrates that our body is replete with overlapping epistemological channels that bifurcate in all directions. Serres explains how somatic encounters with the universe enable us to constitute a stable sense of self in relation to the larger world. However, he recognizes that there are a plethora of obstacles standing in the way of allowing his epistemological dream to come to fruition. In what he refers to as the Exo-Darwinian, hominescent era, the (post-) modern, urbanized lifestyle affords very little contact with the remainder of the planet. Moreover, Serres laments how climate change has already forever eradicated spaces of meaning that are indispensable as part of an epistemological quest of knowing what and who we are as planetary beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this comparative study is to probe the common threads that exist between the relatively unknown Mauritian author Malcolm de Chazal and the underutilised philosopher of science Michel Serres. In Sens-Plastique and throughout Serres’s diverse oeuvre, both authors clearly valorise life and all it has to offer despite the apparent absurdity of the human condition. Although Chazal and Serres’s passion for scientific inquiry leads them to the conclusion that existence has no predetermined meaning en-soi, both writers unwaveringly assert that life can be extremely meaningful and worthwhile. However, in order to access terrestrial, ontological remedies that are capable of effacing existential anguish, the modern subject must (re)-establish a primordial connection to elemental matter. According to Chazal and Serres, (re)-connecting to the biosphere that tossed us into the chaos of existence also (re)-awakens our dormant senses. Serres and Chazal maintain that our senses are vital organs that open up a spiritual pathway which allows us to catch a small glimpse of the divine universe and our minute place in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directly taking aim at Cartesian dualities, anthropocentrism, convoluted abstractions and the nefarious effects of hyper-reality, a salient feature of J. M. G. Le Clézio's and Michel Serres's literary projects is to restore our dulled senses to their original vitality. Both authors urge the reader to transcend the limitations of rationality by (re-)establishing a direct relationship to the universe to which all life forms are connected. For Le Clézio and Serres, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand the complex nature of material reality and our connection to it owing to the world of ubiquitous simulations among which we now spend the majority of our existence. Moreover, Le Clézio and Serres express their fears related to the consequences of cosmic alienation. Explaining that our homocentric thought systems are perhaps ‘too cerebral’ in nature, both writers compel us to taste, touch, feel, hear and smell the planetary mystery of which our species constitutes a small part. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]