Can plants feel pain?

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FistOfThe North
I know they have life and they die but can they feel inflicted pain as well? Like say if someone breaks a branch or if they're sawed or chopped down?

Great Vengeance
No. They would need a nervous system.

Adam_PoE
How do you expect one to determine whether or not plants feel pain when it cannot be objectively proven that human beings feel pain?

Great Vengeance
Originally posted by Adam_PoE
How do you expect one to determine whether or not plants feel pain when it cannot be objectively proven that human beings feel pain?

We know what causes pain in humans, and plants are without the necessary systems. If you want to go really deep, then we cant actually prove without a doubt that plants dont feel pain, but I dont see the point. All common sense and reasonable deduction points to plants not being able to feel pain.

Flamboyant4Life
Originally posted by Adam_PoE
How do you expect one to determine whether or not plants feel pain when it cannot be objectively proven that human beings feel pain? Nervous System.....

FistOfThe North
Originally posted by Great Vengeance
No. They would need a nervous system.

Well can they feel emotional pain? Humans don't need a nervous system for that.

Morgoths_Wrath
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
Well can they feel emotional pain? Humans don't need a nervous system for that.

they need a brain, though...

Roland
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2006-07-24-plant-talk-baby-boys_x.htm

I don't think plants can "feel" pain but they do know when they are being attacked and they can emit chemicals that warn other plants downwind to boost their defenses. cool

Adam_PoE
Originally posted by Great Vengeance
We know what causes pain in humans, and plants are without the necessary systems. If you want to go really deep, then we cant actually prove without a doubt that plants dont feel pain, but I dont see the point. All common sense and reasonable deduction points to plants not being able to feel pain.

Originally posted by Flamboyant4Life
Nervous System.....

"Pain" is a subjective experience that typically accompanies nociception, but can also arise without any stimulus, e.g. fibromialgia.

Flamboyant4Life
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
Well can they feel emotional pain? Humans don't need a nervous system for that. Umm yess they do...Originally posted by Adam_PoE
"Pain" is a subjective experience that typically accompanies nociception, but can also arise without any stimulus, e.g. fibromialgia. Yeah...but you still need a nervous system to feel it.

Psyquis52
I'm feeling pain just from reading this.

Regret
The sensation of feeling is merely a physiological response to a given stimuli. A nervous system is not necessary to term a response as "feeling".

Plants turn towards light, thus something akin to "feeling" does occur.
Venus flytraps respond to the "feeling" of something on its trap.

Given this, it is possible for pain to be "felt" by a plant as far as that argument against being valid.

I do not know enough about plant life to make a statement as to the responses that plants have to damage. All the same, if a plant responds in some way to damage we can infer that the damage was interpreted as pain.

Fire
I doubt plants can feel pain, but Regret made a nice point about plants feeling

Storm
Some plants would have the ability to retract from a noxious stimulus. Whether this sensation of pain is equivalent to the human experience is debatable.

Black Rob
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
I know they have life and they die but can they feel inflicted pain as well? Like say if someone breaks a branch or if they're sawed or chopped down? I hope not cuz i'd feel real bad about how many i smoked

lil bitchiness
Originally posted by Great Vengeance
No. They would need a nervous system.

They would need a nervious system to feel the pain in the way humans do.

Thats like saying, plants can't eat, because in order to do that they will need a mouth and a stomach. They still feed.

They could still feel pain, in a much complex manner than we tend to attribute it.

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