The Self‐Evidencing Brain
2014/03/24 by Jakob Hohwy · 23 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Embodied and Extended Cognition #Neural dynamics and brain function #Action Observation and Synchronization
paper · doi:10.1111/nous.12062
Abstract
Abstract An exciting theory in neuroscience is that the brain is an organ for prediction error minimization (PEM). This theory is rapidly gaining influence and is set to dominate the science of mind and brain in the years to come. PEM has extreme explanatory ambition, and profound philosophical implications. Here, I assume the theory, briefly explain it, and then I argue that PEM implies that the brain is essentially self‐evidencing . This means it is imperative to identify an evidentiary boundary between the brain and its environment. This boundary defines the mind‐world relation, opens the door to skepticism, and makes the mind transpire as more inferentially secluded and neurocentrically skull‐bound than many would nowadays think. Therefore, PEM somewhat deflates contemporary hypotheses that cognition is extended, embodied and enactive; however, it can nevertheless accommodate the kinds of cases that fuel these hypotheses.
Citations
Cited by
- Predictive processing, perceiving and imagining: Is to perceive to imagine, or something close to it?
- Fictional minds extend for real
- Marti-5: A Mathematical Model of "Self in the World" as a First Step Toward Self-Awareness
- Generalised free energy and active inference
- The concept of reflection in the work of John Dewey
- The Inherent Normativity of Concepts
- A causal pluralist theory of the interaction of substance, set and setting in psychedelic experience
- Solving the relevance problem with predictive processing
- Active inference on discrete state-spaces: A synthesis
- Surprise Minimization Revision Operators
- Visual Cognitive Neuroscience
- Contextuality, Cognitive Engagement, and Active Inference
- Enacting recovery: Virtual reality, active inference, and cognitive behavioural therapy for depression
- A beautiful loop: An active inference theory of consciousness
- Nonequilibrium physics of brain dynamics
- Self-Evidencing Through Hierarchical Gradient Decomposition: A Dissipative System That Maintains Non-Equilibrium Steady-State by Minimizing Variational Free Energy
- <i>Edging thermodynamic equilibrium</i> : mystical experiences as “mirror” encounters between the entropic brain and the entropic world
- From flow to mystical experiences: Connecting entropy and fluency along the unifying framework of cognitive continuum
- Repenser l’éducation et la technologie pour l’Anthropocène: de l’inférence active à la technopolitique située
- Toward a Computational Phenomenology of Meditative Deconstruction: “Letting Go” and the Deconstruction of Experience With Active Inference
- Conscious active inference I: A quantum model naturally implements the path integral needed for real-time planning and control
- Contextuality, Cognitive Engagement, and Active Inference
- Active Inference, Curiosity and Insight
Related