Plant Neurobiology: Lessons for the Unity of Science

Abstract

I propose to study the integration of contemporary scientific knowledge in cognitive neuroscience and plant neurobiology in order to assess the Unity of Science hypothesis. Oppenheim and Putnam (Unity of science as a working hypothesis. In: Feigl H, Maxwell G, Scriven M (eds) Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp 3–36, 1958. Reprinted in Boyd R, Gasper P, Trout JD (1991) The Philosophy of Science) considered the sort of mereological support that the Unity of Science hypothesis may receive from the principles of ontogenesis and evolution. I shall argue that a mechanistic understanding of eukaryote communication via the propagation of action potentials shows that the principle of ontogenesis does not support the hypothesis. Although the safest bet in my view is to press on a particular form of indirect evidence that the principle of evolution provides, I shall conclude that at present the Unity of Science remains an open empirical working