Literary notes about Vegetative (AI summary)
The term "vegetative" has been used in literature with a range of meanings that reflect both biological and metaphorical nuances. In scientific and horticultural texts, it denotes a mode of reproduction or growth as seen in references to "vegetative propagation" where it describes a non-sexual means of breeding plants ([1], [2]), and is also used to discuss characteristics of plant parts in breeding experiments ([3], [4]). Meanwhile, in philosophical and literary works, "vegetative" describes a state of being associated with base, non-rational, or instinctive functions. Emerson juxtaposes a man in a vegetative state against one who is fully expressive ([5]), while Jefferson and Addison use the term to critique the reduction of human faculties to mere animalistic functions ([6], [7]). Authors like Santayana, Schopenhauer, and Dewey extend this metaphor to explore the distinction between the organic, instinctive aspects of life and higher cognitive or conscious activity ([8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]). Thus, across these works, the word "vegetative" is versatile—applying concrete biological processes in some contexts and offering a rich metaphor for diminished or fundamental life forces in others.
- Vegetative Propagation In vegetative propagation the tree breeder has a very important tool.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - Vegetative Propagation In vegetative propagation the tree breeder has a very important tool.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - If the best vegetative and fruiting characters from these two species can be combined the result should be good for our northern sections.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - After several attempts I now have two progenies of reciprocal crosses of which a few seedlings seem to show hybridity in the vegetative parts.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - Man imprisoned, man crystallized, man vegetative, speaks to man impersonated.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - The indolent Man descends from the Dignity of his Nature, and makes that Being which was Rational merely Vegetative:
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The indolent Man descends from the Dignity of his Nature, and makes that Being which was Rational merely Vegetative:
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele - Many animals probably have this form of experience; they are not wholly submerged in a vegetative stupor; they can discern what they love or fear.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - She understands the vegetative soul, and the first lispings of sense and sentiment in the child have an absorbing interest for her.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - The author proposes to confine himself to a consideration of the latter—the vegetative—aspect of life.
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen - For its secret has the same simplicity as their vegetative art; only spirituality has succeeded in adding consciousness without confusing instinct.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - All properly organic and vegetative changes of the animal body must therefore be referred to stimuli, not to mere causes.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer - Whether consciousness, for instance, accompanies vegetative life, or even all motion, is a point to be decided solely by empirical analogy.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - In the mass of people, vegetative and animal functions dominate.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
