In this lecture, Michael Marder will consider five main implications of extended plant cognition. (a) As it is currently conceptualized, the information-processing model is inapplicable to extended plant cognition. (b) The minimal unit of extended plant cognition is the plant + its environments (above and below ground). (c) Extended plant cognition is thinking with the environment, a co-thinking or a co-cognizing. (d) The decentralized equivalent of the central nervous system in plants is not another internal network but the conjunction of internal and external communication pathways, that is to say, of plants + not-plants. (e) The exceptional character of the sense of touch, as well as temperature and electrical sensing, scattered throughout the living extension of both plants and animals highlights their importance to extended cognition. Jointly, these negative and positive facets of extended plant cognition hold the promise of reconceptualizing the cognitive comportment of plants, as well as of all living beings.“
Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. His writings span the fields of ecological theory, phenomenology, and political thought. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and monographs, including “Plant-Thinking” (2013); “Phenomena—Critique—Logos” (2014); “The Philosopher’s Plant” (2014); “Dust” (2016), “Energy Dreams” (2017), “Heidegger” (2018), “Political Categories” (2019), “Pyropolitics” (2015, 2020); “Dump Philosophy” (2020); “Hegel's Energy” (2021); “Green Mass” (2021), “Philosophy for Passengers” (2022), and “The Phoenix Complex” (2023), among others.
