FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everybody,

Have you read a book called What a Plant Knows? I still need to read it because the author thinks that mindless plants can feel sensations, hear, and smell. He seems a little confused, though. After all, how can anyone or anything know anything without a mind to know it with? In an interview that someone posted here, the book author suggests that he doesn't want to do philosophy, but he's already doing it when he says that plants can know something or other.

Gee, I hope plants can't feel anything. If they can, anytime I prune my CPs, I'll imagine a silent scream.

I wonder about these things because I earned a philosophy degree.

Bill

I remember reading an article about how plants are able to think in a way, it's by the author of the same book you are talking about. The capabilities of plants are truly amazing


Here it is
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -chamovitz

I think saying they can feel, see, smell, etc. is a bit of a reach. Sure, they can react to external stimuli, but that's not the same thing.

If I was in a room full of carbon monoxide, I would eventually suffocate. That's my bodies response to the effects of the gas, similar to a plants reaction to ethylene. Or a better example would be allergies, where there is an uncontrollable response to the stimuli. But I would never say it was the smell of the carbon monoxide that caused the death, or that it's the "smell" of a chemical that causes an allergic reaction. Smell is your brain interpreting the signals it receives from the olfactory system. The perception of smell is individual, without a higher level thought process a plant can't smell, only react to a chemical.

Same thing for the other senses. At best a plant can react. VFT's don't "feel" a bug and therefore close, it's a reaction to certain triggers. Furthermore the reactions are automatic, the trap can't choose to close after stimulation.

All in all I don't buy it. I certainly think that plants are vastly complex organisms. And that they don't get credit for what they're capable of. But I would never go so far as to say they see, or hear, or feel. They simply react via a complex system of stimuli responses.