Finding Animals Conference

Earlier today, I attended the third annual Finding Animals Conference in Foster Auditorium. The purpose of this conference was to explore comparative and historical perspectives on the field of Animals studies. Although the conference over the course of two days, I was only able to attend one session. This session was called Redrawing Borders: New Models of Animal Consciousness and Behavior. During this part, three guest speakers gave very informative presentations on the developing theories, research, and work in this area.

Dr. Richard Doyle, who is currently a Penn State Professor, was one of these guest speakers. His talk, Finding Animals with Plants: Sustainable Attention Attractors and Noöspheric Intelligence, centered on the influence of Plants globally and their importance in sustaining life. One concept that he touched upon was the perception of Plants where intelligence is concerned. He discussed how Plants are not viewed as intelligent, and are also described in the things they lack.

I agreed with Dr. Doyle here. Since we generally tend to evaluate one’s intelligence based upon its vivid capabilities, it is not hard to understand why a plant would be viewed this way. There is no way for a plant to show its skill at mastering new material, or performing tricks that people would assume they are incapable of doing. Plants are simply not equipped with brains, multiple functioning parts, and similar capabilities to do this. Because it appears that anything is possible, I am not eager to conclude that plants lack intelligence. I just think that determining the factors that would make one plant more intelligent than the next may be harder to discern.