The evidence for animal sentience is certain. The evidence for plant sentience is non-existent in my view but is, at best, highly speculative. Look at What Recognizing Sentience Has Done for Nonhuman Animals: Nothing In other words, your salad involved killing sentient beings so go ahead and enjoy that steak. That is, the plant sentience argument is, in a nutshell: we can’t avoid exploiting sentient beings because plants are (supposedly) sentient so it’s fine for us to keep exploiting nonhuman animals. The real interest in plant sentience is in challenging the claim that we cannot morally justify continuing to exploit the billions of cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, fishes, etc. Rather, I want to argue that claims about plant sentience have nothing to do with any sincere interest in plant sentience. But I am not presently interested in debating whether plants are sentient. I do not believe that that there is any evidence that plants have minds that prefer, desire, or want any state of affairs. I do not believe that there is any evidence whatsoever that plants are sentient in the sense of being subjectively aware and able to experience pain and suffering. Plants who prefer rock usually choose Axl Rose or Robert Plant the classical fans like Tchaikovsky for his Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker. But we wouldn’t say that because it would be silly to do so. We could say that the electrically charged particles that travel down the wire are nonconsciously intending to make the bell sound. But can we talk about the “intentionality” of cancer cells? Only if we assume that cellular reactions have a cognitive component. We hope that these processes are conducted toward certain ends, such as cellular repair, and not toward other ends, such as tumor formation. At this very moment, there are all sorts of complex biological processes going on in our bodies. But it begs the question to talk about “intentionality” in this context. He responded that he thought that they were capable of “nonconscious intentionality.” What in the world does that mean? How can one intend to do something in a nonconscious way? Isn’t consciousness necessary for intention? Do plants engage in activities that achieve certain states of affairs? Yes. In a debate that I had with Marder, I asked him whether he thought plants were sentient. Philosopher Michael Marder, author of Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (2103) made headlines when he was credited with claiming that plants are sentient. But when Scientific American interviewed Chamovitz and asked him point blank, “Would you say, then, that plants ‘think’?” Chamovitz replied, “No, I wouldn’t.” He added, “Just as a plant can’t suffer subjective pain in the absence of a brain, I also don’t think that it thinks.” This gave rise to a wealth of claims in the popular media that plants were sentient. For example, in his 2012 book, What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses , Tel Aviv University scientist Daniel Chamovitz wrote that plants could see, smell, and hear. That is, the evidence shows that plants react it does not show that plants respond. The evidence on which these claims are based establishes at most that plants are alive and conduct various activities, some of which are very complex. Plants: They React They Don’t RespondĮvery now and then, the internet lights up with the most recent claim that new evidence indicates that plants are sentient that is, that they are conscious and have some sort of mind and are relevantly similar to animals. The next time you’re eating with a vegan, ask them about MY suffering and death.
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