Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: (1848) - has historically been relegated to the margins as mystical or unscientific. However, a contemporary re-examination reveals that Fechner's arguments were deeply rooted in empirical observation and inductive reasoning, anticipating current discourse on plant intelligence, learning, and communication. Regarding plant awareness, for instance, Fechner posits that their intimate physical immersion in earth, water, air, and light necessitates that every environmental fluctuation be accessible to their experience. For a sessile organism, survival demands total immersion in the present moment; thus, while the plant may lack the temporal cognitive representations (memory and anticipation) typical of animals, Fechner hypothesizes that its immediate sensorial experience may have reached a degree of intensity even exceeding that of human beings. Overall, Fechner's perspective offers plant biologists, psychologists, and neuroscientists an original framework to reconceptualize intelligence and perception, suggesting that sentience is an intrinsic property of life itself rather than a mere derivative of neural complexity.
Source: Plant Signaling & Behavior
Author: Giulia Parovel
Institution: University of Siena
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,070
Award: G675437911
OpenAlex ID: W7130505668