An Argumentation for Embodied Plant Cognition with Parallels from Animal Cognition
2025 (English)In: JOWO 2025: The Joint Ontology Workshops / [ed] J. Beverley, C. M. Keet, N. Lamba, P. Lambrix, S. Tiwari, CEUR-WS , 2025, Vol. 4176Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Bordering on pseudoscience, plant cognition has long been perceived as something at the far distant border of the scientific range. In comparison to animals, plants have been grouped together with rocks as objects without cognition. At the same time, cognition as a term and phenomenon is largely undefined and arbitrary to the context and species in question. As biologists uncover more and more about plants, the claim that plants have no cognition has for some time been questioned. In light of this increased awareness of cognitive abilities in plants, it is worth updating the perspectives on cognition. One of the main current perspectives on cognition centres around the idea that it is through the body’s sensorimotor experiences with the environment that cognition arises. As there is no doubt that plants have a manifested body with sensory experiences, it is reasonable to argue that even in plants, some form of cognition might take place. Within this embodied cognition paradigm, this paper looks at some of the arguments for why plants should also be considered cognitive creatures.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
CEUR-WS , 2025. Vol. 4176
Series
CEUR-WS, ISSN 1613-0073 ; 4176
Keywords [en]
Animal cognition, Embodied cognition, Free will, Intelligence, Plant cognition, Artificial intelligence, Cognitive systems, Invertebrates, Plants (botany), 'current, Cognitive ability, Sensorimotors, Sensory experiences, Animals
National Category
Biological Sciences Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-72279ISI: 001805540600001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105039606959OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-72279DiVA, id: diva2:2070846
Conference
Proceedings of the Joint Ontology Workshops (JOWO) - Episode XI: The Sicilian Summer under the Etna, co-located with the 15th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS 2025) Catania, Italy, September 8-12, 2025.
2026-06-122026-06-122026-08-21Bibliographically approved