The Vegetal Mind: From Plant Neurobiology to Panpsychism?
Co-sponsored by Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School
Cutting edge research is radically expanding our understanding of plants’ and fungi’s capacities to perceive their environments and make complex decisions in response. The groundbreaking cross-disciplinary Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative at Harvard was recently founded to draw from biology, ecology and the humanities to explore how inquiry into plant and fungal life could illuminate the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationships to the more-than-human world. This session will delve into some of the most recent scientific findings on plant cognition and their implications for our own species as well as venture into more philosophical terrain, exploring such topics as the nature of intelligence and traditions that speculate about whether consciousness in some latent form might permeate the universe (i.e., “Panpsychism”). Hosted by Rachael Petersen, program lead for the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School. With Luke Roelofs, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, working on the ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology of consciousness; and Kristi Onzik, anthropologist of science, currently researching the field of PNCB (Plant Neurobiology, Cognition, and Behavior).
Goldman Theater, Brower Center
March 29th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Panelists
Rachael Petersen
Program Lead
Harvard's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative
Rachael Petersen, MDiv, Program Lead for Harvard's Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter, previously worked for a decade in environmental policy, with expertise in climate mitigation, forest protection, and Indigenous rights, conducting fieldwork in the Amazon, Borneo, and Arctic Canada. She served as Senior Advisor to National Geographic Society and founding Deputy Director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute. A writer and translator, her work has been published in many publications, including Aeon, The Sun, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Tricycle Magazine, Peripheries Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, The Outline.
Luke Roelofs
Assistant Professor
University of Texas at Arlington
Luke Roelofs is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, working on the ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology of consciousness. Their first book, Combining Minds (2019), explores the possibility that minds in general, and the human mind in particular, might be collectives of many mental parts. Their more recent work has explored the possibility of conscious minds outside humans and animals, the mechanisms of imagination, and the role of empathy in morality.
Kristi Onzik
