Monday, 6 May 2024
Attending to Plants
Botanical Intelligence and Phenomenology
Image Credit: Mandrake (gr. ΜΑΝΔΡΑΓΟΡΑ, in capital letters). Folio 90 from the Naples Dioscurides, a 7th century manuscript of Dioscurides De Materia Medica (Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, Cod. Gr. 1) Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)
To view the recording, please click the image above or visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqmii6PvWWs
André Geremia Parise of the University of Reading and Dr Isis Brook of Bath Spa University presented the online seminar, Attending to Plants: Botanical Intelligence and Phenomenology, on 6 May 2024. The seminar introduced participants to the idea of plant attention and the practice of phenomenology as attending carefully to the botanical world.
André Parise began by introducing the scientific concept of attention, which can be described as the cognitive ability to prioritise the perception of and response to certain stimuli over others. While attention is traditionally considered an animal capacity, recent research has suggested that plants may possess their own form of attention.
Building on André’s discussion of plant attention, Dr Isis Brook outlined key principles in the theory and practice of phenomenology as an approach to seeing vegetal nature anew. With its longstanding philosophical tradition, phenomenology offers a strongly grounded framework for connecting with plants through careful sensory engagement.
The seminar was offered as part of Gifts from the Sentient Forest with support from the Kone Foundation’s ‘In the Woods’ funding programme. Based in Northern Finland, the project endeavours to understand how recognising the botanical world in contexts other than exploitation can illuminate ways in which plant life and forests rejuvenate human-nature relationships and sustain the Earth.
About Our Presenters
For over a decade, André Geremia Parise has studied the cognition and intelligence of plants, learning how these extraordinary organisms interact with their environment. He has developed the hypotheses of plant attention and extended plant cognition alongside a team of collaborators. André’s PhD research at the University of Reading explores mycorrhizal symbioses and non-neural cognitive systems.
Dr Isis Brook completed her PhD on Goethean science and Husserlian phenomenology. She taught philosophy for over twenty five years mainly teaching environmental philosophy and aesthetics; first at Lancaster University and then the University of Central Lancashire. Isis is a Visiting Research Fellow of Bath Spa University and Deputy Editor of the journal Plant Perspectives.