Do plants have the cognitive complexity for sentience?

Solé Vicente, Ricard, 1962-

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.51291/2377-7478.1810

Do plants have the cognitive complexity for sentience?

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Solé R. Do plants have the cognitive complexity for sentience?. Animal Sentience. 2023;33(18). DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1810

Abstract

Are plants sentient? Like other aspects of the cognitive potential of plants, this is a controversial issue, often driven by analogies and seldom supported on solid theoretical grounds. Sentience is understood in cognitive sciences as the capacity to feel. I suggest that because of plants’ evolved adaptations to morphological plasticity, sessile nature and ecological constraints, they are unlikely to have the requisite cognitive complexity for sentience.