Draft:Mycosophy
Philosophy
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Mycosophy is the philosophical branch from biosophy and ecosophy, that arises from seeing the World through the lens of fungal biology, ecology and evolution, and asks how our understanding of nature, evolution, life on Earth and our place in nature, can be enlightened by this. In short, mycosophy asks what our species can learn from fungi. Mycosophy is also the philosophical enrichment of culture through the understanding revealed by the science of the behaviour, ecology and evolution of fungal mycelia.
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For reasons set out below, the development of mycosophy requires an inevitable rebalancing of a previous bias that arose from our past ignorance of fungi and ignorance of the predominance of their ecologically symbiotic modes of mycelial existence. For example, it is known now that over 90% of plants growing in their natural ecosystems develop mycorrhizal root relationships with species of mycorrhizal soil mycelia.
History
Until 10th January 1969, mycology, the biological study of fungi, was considered a niche area of Botany (study of plants) of little relevance or importance to the life sciences as a whole. Although the specialist study of fungi (mycology) had existed for several generations, fungi had in fact been misclassified during this time as peculiar plants. Early mycologists focused on the reproductive organs rather than the mycelial bodies of fungi. This was largely due to the fact that the only time we can see fungi with the naked eye is generally when they occasionally produce their sexual reproductive organs (mushrooms), and so we failed to understand the true nature of the creatures from which reproductive organs had arisen.
It turns out that fungi were always far closer to animals, having shared common ancestors with animals when life was confined to the oceans, much more recently than the last common ancestor between fungi and plants. On 10th January 1969 a paper written by Whittaker was published in the international journal Science that proposed that a third multicellular Eukaryotic Kingdom of life, Fungi, be added next to pre-existing Kingdoms Plantae and Animalia.
Whittaker's paper </Whittaker, R.H. (1969) “New Concepts of Kingdoms of Organisms,” Science 163(3863), pp. 150–160.> proposed moving from a 4 Kingdom classification to a 5 Kingdom classification of life on Earth, fitting an additional fungal branch into the evolutionary tree of life. The sequence of evolution proposed from the origin of life 3.7 Billion years ago, to present, starts with Kingdom Monera (Bacteria), then Kingdom Protoctista (Protista), followed by the three Eukaryotic multicellular Kingdoms of Plants, Fungi, and Animals.
More recently, Kingdom Monera has been sub-divided into two bacterial Kingdoms; Kingdom Archybacteria (Archaea) and Kingdom Eubacteria, making the current total of 6 accepted Kingdoms of life. Since 1990, the Kingdoms have been grouped together into the Domains of life; the Archaea, Eubacteria and Eukaryotes.
The mycosophical significance of this belated recognition that we have evolved and lived on a planet unaware that fungi are a unique Kingdom of life is that for the most part of history, going back to the ancient Greeks, we were wrong to have seen the world principly through the binary lens of Zoology and Botany - as being the only two important branches of Biological Science.
Not only were we oblivious to the Kingdom of fungi, but more importantly, to the role this group of organisms had played throughout the evolutionary history of life on this planet. Our ignorance of there being anything other than plants and animals alive on Earth remained until the 17C with Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and the invention of the microscope at the dawn of microbiology. Fungi are indeed microbes that, unlike bacteria, very occasionally will produce visible reproductive organs such as mushrooms, toadstools and truffles which we can see with the naked eye. Most fungi spend most of their lives hidden from our eyes within their microscopic bodies consisting of hyphal threads that anastomose to form mycelia, living inside, on and between other forms of life. Only after the microscope was it possible for mycologists to realise that when you walk in a forest, you are surrounded by fungal mycelia, not just in the soil but also hidden inside every root, leaf, twig, branch and trunk of trees.
Re-assessing wrong and limited assumptions, biases and entrenched beliefs that have arisen from being oblivious to the biological roles and ecological significance of fungi is therefore part of mycosophy. Gradually rewriting this wrong has enabled Biologists to appreciate more fully the importance of symbiotic relations of different kinds as underpinning many of the most important evolutionary transitions e.g, the terrestrialization of life onto land through the formation of lichen colonies.
Another aspect of mycosophy is to appreciate the versatile biochemistry of fungi in their prolific production of chemicals, medicines, antibiotics and other useful compounds, including psychedelics, and the general cultural benefits which these have brought humans throughout the ages, indeed since the dawn of humanity itself. With the knowledge of fungi, their mycelial ecology and evolution, symbiotic relations to other taxa, and their cultural and culinary benefits to humans, it is indeed possible to see the World in a new light. Examples of mycosophy in literature include the writings of Beatrix Potter who was also a mycologist, Lewis Carroll, Aldous Huxley and Professor Timothy Leary.
More recent development of mycosophy:
Dr. Alan Rayner's Natural Inclusion is an excellent source of mycosophy, stemming from Alan's 30 years career as a mycologist interested in fungal ecology and evolution, starting at the University of Exeter and continuing at the University of Bath. in 1997 Rayner published the mycosophical book Degrees of Freedom - Living in Dynamic Boundaries, published by Imperial College Press. Since finishing his scientific enquiries, Rayner has developed a series of mycosophical paintings, poems and other philosophical writings. In 2010 Rayner published some of these in NatureScope - unlocking our natural empathy and creativity - an inspiring new way of relating to our natural origins and one another through 'natural inclusion'.
In 2005, Paul Stamets published the mycosophical book: Mycelium Running - how mushrooms can help save the World. Stamets has been working hard to introduce people to the benefits of fungi for years in the old growth forests of the Pacific North West. His writings and lectures are perfused with mycelial mycosophy.
Dr. Merlin Sheldrake, who studied tropical mycorrhizal relationships between fungi and plants, followed Rayner and Stamets into mycosophy with his 2021 best-selling book Entangled Life - how fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures. Both Sheldrake and Rayner draw on the philosophical writings and lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, published in the 1978 book Process and Reality - an essay in cosmology. In his 2022 review of Entangled Life, published in the journal Mind and Behaviour, Alex Gomez-Marin describes such writing as mycosophy.
One interesting aspect of fungal mycosophy, perhaps particularly appealing to millennials and gen z, which is mentioned by Rayner, Stamets and Sheldrake are the non-binary genders of many of trans-sexually reproducing mycelia, with some species of fungi possessing neither male nor female but instead hundreds of different genders or mating types. This is quite unlike the binary polarity of sex in plants and animals and represents a more fluid way of understanding our true nature. Indeed, much of the fluid dynamics found within fungal mycelial networks harks back to that ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who believed that everything flows.
Professor Suzanne Simard an eminent forest mycologist specialising in the ecology of mycorrhizal mycelia in the old growth Pacific North West forest, has also been articulating the mycosophical value of her field research in her 2021 book: Finding the Mother Tree - uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest, published by Penguin books.
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Boddy, L. and Rayner, A.D.M. (1983) “Ecological Roles of Basidiomycetes Forming Decay Communities in Attached Oak Branches,” The New phytologist, 93(1), pp. 77–88. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1983.tb02694.x.
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Gomez–Marin, A. (2022) Review of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake. The Journal of Mind and Behavior 43, no. 1 (2022): 67–78.
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Rayner, A.D.M. (1991) “The Challenge of the Individualistic Mycelium,” Mycologia, 83(1), p. 48. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3759832.
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Rayner, A.D.M. (1997) Degrees of Freedom - living in dynamic boundaries. Imperial College Press.
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Rayner. A.D.M. (2010) NatureScope - unlocking our natural empathy and creativity. O-books. John Hunt Press.
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Sheldrake M.(2020) Entangled Life - how fungi make our worlds, change our minds, and shape our futures. Penguin/Vintage.
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Simard S. (2021) Finding the Mother Tree - uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest, Penguin Books.
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Stamets P.(2005) Mycelium Running - how mushrooms can help save the World. 10 Speed Press, Berkeley.
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Thompson, W. and Rayner, A.D.M. (1982) “Spatial structure of a population of Tricholomopsis platyphylla in a woodland site,” The New Phytologist, 92(1), pp. 103–114. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1982.tb03366.x.
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Whitehead, A. N. (1929). Process and reality: An essay in cosmology. [Gifford lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh during the session 1927–1928]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Whittaker, R.H. (1969) “New Concepts of Kingdoms of Organisms,” Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 163(3863), pp. 150–160. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.163.3863.150.
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