Sentient plants? Nervous minds?
Animal Sentience August 3, 2026 DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1307 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Commentary Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Evolution Cognitive neuroscience Zoology Cognition and perception Life sciences |
| Key points | The author responds to two critiques of a 2016 target article on the distribution of sentience. Calvo contends plants are likely sentient and that the author shows zoocentric bias; Mallatt and Feinberg contend the author grants sentience too readily to species without nervous systems. The author concedes the lack of supporting data and offers a partial remedy, while disputing that evolutionary biology was misunderstood. |
Abstract
The commentaries by Calvo (2018) and Mallatt & Feinberg (2017) on my 2016 target branch out from a common conceptual node like forks in a road. Calvo criticizes me for not acknowledging that plants too are likely to be sentient and claims I have fallen into the kind of category error of which I accuse others ─ a zoocentric bias that fails to grant consciousness to flora. Mallatt & Feinberg maintain that I've gone too far in granting sentience to any species that lacks a nervous system. Calvo makes some good points but there are other issues concerning plant sentience such as metabolic cost and ethical implications. Mallatt & Feinberg take me to task for failing to provide supporting data. They are right, and a partial remedy is offered. They also imply that I have misunderstand basic principles of evolutionary biology. I think they have misunderstood my position.