From Plant Behavior to Plant Intelligence?

Over the past years, controversies about plant intelligence became featured in scientific journals in ecology and plant biology. Could plants be intelligent? Could it be true that they talk to each other, assist and defend each other, etc.? What is the scientific truth behind this idea of plant intelligence? Tackling the issue of intelligence in any organism requires us to study and theorize its behavior.

Quentin Hiernaux is a Research Associate of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS. He teaches at the Université libre de Bruxelles, where he defended his PhD dissertation in philosophy on plant individuality. He is also a scientific collaborator of the Meise botanic garden. His research focuses on the history and epistemology of plant science, with a particular interest in the problem of plant behavior. He is more broadly concerned with the status of plants in the history of philosophy and in environmental ethics.