Philosophy of Plants
Humans are not the peak of creation
https://aeon.co/essays/what-plant-philosophy-says-about-plant-agency-and-intelligence
I'd like a word ?
Plant agency and intelligence?
In 1973 I read The Secret Life of Plants when it first came out and I'm still greatly influenced by it. The authors spoke of sensitively tracing the movements of plants. They found that if the snipped a leaf the plant trembled. Surprising enough.
They also found that the neighboring plants also trembled at the snip. Stunning
Back then it was ooooeeeeeooooosort of stuff - how is that possible?
The article above reports how that possible. The snip causes a chemical to be sent into the air from the leaf. That chemical makes all the leaves that encounter it to tremble - apparently a defense.
The article says that plants have behavior. Apparently the way a plant grows and develops into it's unique form is a behavior.
I've watched time lapse videos of the tendrils on a vine reaching out and grasping. It's amazing and spooky.
But really - is that behavior in the sense of how a puppy behaves by smiling at you guiltily after he's wet the carpet?
Once I had a big yard with a fence with ivy on it. The ivy didn't take over the whole fence. To my surprise moved along the fence. I think what was happening that the ivy was soaking up nutrients from the soil and depleting. Where it had been the soil was depleted of nutrients but where it hadn't been there were lots of nutrients. So it grew that way
But is it reasonable to say that the ivy was behaving? I can see why an ivy plant would have to do that but it's sort of like a rock rolling down a hill and is a rock behaving?
The smiling puppy is different.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.