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The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective

In this paper, we argue for a theoretical separation of the free-energy principle from Helmholtzian accounts of the predictive brain. The free-energy principle is a theoretical framework capturing the imperative for biological self-organization in information-theoretic terms. The free-energy princip...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bruineberg, Jelle, Kiverstein, Julian, Rietveld, Erik
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6438652/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30996493
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1239-1
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author Bruineberg, Jelle
Kiverstein, Julian
Rietveld, Erik
author_facet Bruineberg, Jelle
Kiverstein, Julian
Rietveld, Erik
author_sort Bruineberg, Jelle
collection PubMed
description In this paper, we argue for a theoretical separation of the free-energy principle from Helmholtzian accounts of the predictive brain. The free-energy principle is a theoretical framework capturing the imperative for biological self-organization in information-theoretic terms. The free-energy principle has typically been connected with a Bayesian theory of predictive coding, and the latter is often taken to support a Helmholtzian theory of perception as unconscious inference. If our interpretation is right, however, a Helmholtzian view of perception is incompatible with Bayesian predictive coding under the free-energy principle. We argue that the free energy principle and the ecological and enactive approach to mind and life make for a much happier marriage of ideas. We make our argument based on three points. First we argue that the free energy principle applies to the whole animal–environment system, and not only to the brain. Second, we show that active inference, as understood by the free-energy principle, is incompatible with unconscious inference understood as analagous to scientific hypothesis-testing, the main tenet of a Helmholtzian view of perception. Third, we argue that the notion of inference at work in Bayesian predictive coding under the free-energy principle is too weak to support a Helmholtzian theory of perception. Taken together these points imply that the free energy principle is best understood in ecological and enactive terms set out in this paper.
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spelling pubmed-64386522019-04-15 The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective Bruineberg, Jelle Kiverstein, Julian Rietveld, Erik Synthese S.I.: Predictive Brains In this paper, we argue for a theoretical separation of the free-energy principle from Helmholtzian accounts of the predictive brain. The free-energy principle is a theoretical framework capturing the imperative for biological self-organization in information-theoretic terms. The free-energy principle has typically been connected with a Bayesian theory of predictive coding, and the latter is often taken to support a Helmholtzian theory of perception as unconscious inference. If our interpretation is right, however, a Helmholtzian view of perception is incompatible with Bayesian predictive coding under the free-energy principle. We argue that the free energy principle and the ecological and enactive approach to mind and life make for a much happier marriage of ideas. We make our argument based on three points. First we argue that the free energy principle applies to the whole animal–environment system, and not only to the brain. Second, we show that active inference, as understood by the free-energy principle, is incompatible with unconscious inference understood as analagous to scientific hypothesis-testing, the main tenet of a Helmholtzian view of perception. Third, we argue that the notion of inference at work in Bayesian predictive coding under the free-energy principle is too weak to support a Helmholtzian theory of perception. Taken together these points imply that the free energy principle is best understood in ecological and enactive terms set out in this paper. Springer Netherlands 2016-10-21 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC6438652/ /pubmed/30996493 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1239-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle S.I.: Predictive Brains
Bruineberg, Jelle
Kiverstein, Julian
Rietveld, Erik
The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
title The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
title_full The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
title_fullStr The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
title_full_unstemmed The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
title_short The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
title_sort anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective
topic S.I.: Predictive Brains
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6438652/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30996493
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1239-1
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