Title: Do Plants Have Minds? Rethinking Cognition Beyond Neurons
By Paco Calvo (University of Murcia, Philosophy)
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Time: 1530-1700
Room: H-232
Abstract: Plant neurobiology has stirred both excitement and controversy by suggesting that plants, despite lacking neurons, may nevertheless exhibit forms of information processing, memory, and adaptive behavior that invite comparison with cognition. In this talk, I will explore the philosophical implications of these claims. What does it mean to speak of plant “intelligence” or “sentience”? Do our standard criteria for mentality unnecessarily restrict our understanding of cognition in nature? Drawing on recent empirical findings in plant signaling and behavior, I argue that plants challenge us to reconsider entrenched assumptions about mind, agency, and the scope of cognitive science. Far from being a metaphorical stretch, the study of plants may expand our conceptual toolkit for addressing the “hard problems” of mind and the varieties of cognition in living systems.
About the speaker: Paco Calvo is a professor of philosophy of science at the University of Murcia, where he directs the Minimal Intelligence Lab (MINT Lab). His research explores plant cognition and intelligence through an interdisciplinary lens, drawing on biology, philosophy, and cognitive science. He is the co-author, with Natalie Lawrence, of Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence (W.W. Norton, 2023). His edited books include The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology (with Sarah Robins and John Symons, 2nd edition, 2020), The Architecture of Cognition: Rethinking Fodor and Pylyshyn’s Systematicity Challenge (with John Symons, MIT Press, 2014), and Handbook of Cognitive Science: An Embodied Approach (with Toni Gomila, Elsevier, 2008). He has published in journals such as Trends in Plant Science, Annals of Botany, Plant, Cell & Environment, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Biology & Philosophy, Journal of Consciousness Studies, and Synthese.
Professor Paco’s visit is supported by the EU’s Erasmus+ Mobility programme.
