Re: IS A PLANT AS MUCH AS A LIVING THING THAN AN ANIMAL?

> IS A PLANT AS MUCH AS A LIVING THING THAN AN ANIMAL? I MEAN, DOES A PLANT FEEL SOMETHING, PAIN, HAPPINES, OR IS JUST A CHEMICAL FACTORY.

Hmmm... the words "just a chemical factory" bring up all kinds of issues in the philosophy of science and of biology in particular. In one way, all living things are "just chemical factories," but generally I don't like reductionism as a philosophy or as a scientific description. Plants are more than the sum of their parts, as is any living thing -- and for that matter, most non-living things. Is a Renoir painting "just a bunch of pigmented resin smeared on a canvas?" Even an atom is more than "just a bunch of quarks and electrons."

The things you refer to (pain, happiness, sensation in general) are, as far as we can tell, related to possession of a nervous system. Since plants do not have nervous systems, they do not experience pain or pleasure. But they are nevertheless alive: they grow, consume nourishment, reproduce, and respond to stimuli. In a democratic sense, they are as alive as you or I.

Typically, humans think of those things (pain, happiness, sensation in general) which go with having a nervous system and consciousness as "being alive," so that plants have occasionally been classed as non-living. By the current scientific definition, though, plants are definitely living things.