Lost Primacies, Lost Wholes: Subjective Experience in the Sciences of Life

Recent studies in plant and animal cognition are currently leading to a re-evaluation of subjective experience in scientific endeavor while also questioning the widespread application of the physicalist paradigm. These new developments reactivate the old Aristotelian idea of natural philosophy as a unitary vision of science, life, and the universe that surpasses the way it is fragmented into different and even separated disciplines by modern scientific thought. This new scenario, and its reappraisal of subjectivity, anchored in Gestalt theory, addresses scientific classifications, methodologies and assumptions, while highlighting the limitations of the reductionist paradigm. Moreover, it shows that perception becomes a shared principle of organization for both psychology and biology. All this indicates that a more comprehensive understanding of the many nuances of life is possible and this paper includes various suggestions on how to achieve it.