van Es, Thomas and Hipolito, Ines (2020) Free-Energy Principle, Computationalism and Realism: a Tragedy. [Preprint]
|
Text
Free-Energy Principle, Computationalism and Realism_ a Tragedy -2.pdf Download (685kB) | Preview |
Abstract
The free energy principle provides an increasingly popular framework to biology and cognitive science. However, it remains disputed whether its statistical models are scientific tools to describe non-equilibrium steady-state systems (which we call the instrumentalist reading), or are literally implemented and utilized by those systems (the realist reading). We analyze the options critically, with particular attention to the question of representationalism. We argue that realism is unwarranted and conceptually incoherent. Conversely, instrumentalism is safer whilst remaining explanatorily powerful. Moreover, we show that the representationalism debate loses relevance in an instrumentalist reading. Finally, these findings could be generalized for our interpretation of models in cognitive science more generally.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Keywords: | representationalism, realism, Free-Energy Principle (FEP), scientific models | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Systems Neuroscience |
|||||||||
| Depositing User: | Ines Hipolito | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 07 Dec 2020 16:05 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 07 Dec 2020 16:05 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 18497 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Systems Neuroscience |
|||||||||
| Date: | 7 December 2020 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18497 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}