Do Willows Really Weep? Cognition, Its Grammar, and the Problem of Pluralism. Conceptual, Linguistic and Metascientific Disagreements in Recent Science

This paper will serve two functions. First, as a foreword to the other essays that compose this monographic issue of the journal. It will also provide a critical discussion on two major issues that emerged in the general. The first consists in seeing the philosophical outcomes of new developments in science through the lens of the language that is used to describe them. The second pertains to the metascientific level of the disagreement, as this new evidence challenges the established understanding of scientific practice and its philosophical foundations. The case of plant cognition will be examined in some detail to illustrate both issues.