Seeing Plants - ENVR 203

Vocabulary flashcards covering concepts of biocentrism, plant blindness, the Great Chain of Being, biosemiotics, and explanatory frameworks from the 'Seeing Plants' lecture.

Frames

• Conceptual lenses that shape what we know, how we approach an issue, and the stories we tell

• we are looking at this from a biocentric _______ to include plants

Biocentrism

• all living organisms have intrinsic value

  • extending moral consideration beyond humans and sentient animals to all living beings

    • includes plants

  • no lifeless matter or energy have any value, except instrumental value for promoting organisms good

• a value theory

Basis for Biocentrism

• what if all living organisms matter

• what if its not just the ability to suffer but the fact that something is simply alive, is enough for it to matter and have value and be afforded moral consideration

  • not all moral consideration has to be/ is equal under this but it is still there

the great chain of being

• A strict, fixed divine hierarchical order advanced in Medieval Christian thought

• placed plants on the bottom of the chain/ lowest rung just above inorganic materials

• the dominant view/framing of the natural world in the west, in place for centuries

  • we’ve lived with this kind of logic a lot longer than we have with the theory of evolution (why its hard for people to just move on a forget)

under the value theory of biocentrism, Yes. but to simply overcome it, not necessarily

Does overcoming plant blindness require us to afford plants moral consideration?

Plant Blindness

• The anthropocentric tendency to see plants merely as background rather than as individual, complex living organisms with their own evolutionary lifestyle and biological significance

the ethical, perceptual, and conceptual frames

What are the Three Frames for seeing plants more clearly?

semiotics

• the study of signs

Biosemiotics

• The study of how living organisms constantly produce, interpret, and respond to signs and biological meaning in their environment

  • this is not always a cognitive process in the brain

  • finds many examples of how different forms of life produce signs, interpret them, and respond

    • plants participate in these processes too

  • all life creates signs, interprets signs, and responds to signs

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Airborne chemical compounds released by plants (such as maize when attacked by Spodoptera caterpillars) that serve as a sign indicating prey presence to predatory wasps.

Mechanistic Biology Frame

A scientific perspective focused on physical and biochemical processes, asking how a plant response occurs, what receptor detects a molecule, and which biochemical pathway is activated.

Biosemiotic Framing

A perspective focused on biological meaning, asking what an environmental cue signifies to a plant, how biologically relevant differences are detected, and how that distinction shapes the plant's response.