From Hierarchy to Relationships

BY ANN ADAMS

In a recent article “Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See” in Nautilus by author Peter Wohlleben, the author is making a case for the retirement of the classification of living things. When I read this article, I found myself excited about the possibility to move past hierarchy to the recognition of all the symbiotic relationships that make up the natural world that makes such hierarchies a lesson in futility.

The author begins his article with discussing his interview with philosopher Emanuele Coccia who wrote the book The Life of Plants. In this book Coccia notes how such hierarchy implies superiority and distorts our view of nature (and of ourselves). After all, don’t we owe our continued survival on plankton and fungi which may be perceived as “lower” species.

Certainly I can appreciate the familial relationships that are noted in the taxonomical