History and epistemology of plant behaviour: a pluralistic view?

Synthese 198 (4):3625-3650 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Some biologists now argue in favour of a pluralistic approach to plant activities, understandable both from the classical perspective of physiological mechanisms and that of the biology of behaviour involving choices and decisions in relation to the environment. However, some do not hesitate to go further, such as plant “neurobiologists” or philosophers who today defend an intelligence, a mind or even a plant consciousness in a renewed perspective of these terms. To what extent can we then adhere to pluralism in the study of plant behaviour? How does this pluralism in the study and explanation of plant behaviour fit into, or even build itself up, in a broader history of science? Is it a revolutionary way of rethinking plant behaviour in the twenty-first century or is it an epistemological extension of an older attitude? By proposing a synthesis of the question of plant behaviour by selected elements of the history of botany, the objective is to show that the current plant biology is not unified on the question of behaviour, but that its different tendencies are in fact part of a long botanical tradition with contrasting postures. Two axes that are in fact historically linked will serve as a common thread. 1. Are there several ways of understanding or conceiving plant behaviour within plant sciences and their epistemology? 2. Can the behaviour of a plant be considered in the same way as that of an animal? The working hypothesis defended in this article consists in showing that the current opposition between growth, development and reductionist physiology on the one hand and the biology of behaviour involving sensitivity and choices in plant activity on the other hand has been built up through the history of botany.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,388

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Differentiating Behaviour, Cognition, and Consciousness in Plants.Q. Hiernaux - 2021 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 28 (1-2):106-135.
Return of the organism? The concept in plant biology, now and then.Özlem Yilmaz - 2024 - Theoretical and Experimental Plant Physiology 36 (Special Issue: Advances in Philo):355-368.
An Herbiary of Plant Individuality.Sophie Gerber - 2018 - Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 10 (5):1-5.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-07-02

Downloads
55 (#409,745)

6 months
11 (#246,005)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?