Casting inference to the best explanation's lot with active inference

2023-01-01
This paper draws on the resources of computational neuroscience (an account of active inference under the free energy principle) to address Bas van Fraassen's bad lot objection to the inference to the best explanation (IBE). The general assumption of this paper is that IBE is a finessed form of active inferences that self-organising systems perform to maximise the chance of their survival. Under this assumption, the paper aims to establish the following points: first, the capacity to learn to perform explanatory inferences comes with evolutionary privileges; second, adaptive actions guide beliefs and beliefs are action-oriented; and third, IBE is not inconsistent with (approximate) Bayesianism but plays a heuristic role to it.
Theoria (Sweden)

Suggestions

An integrative explanation of action
Benı, Majıd Davoody (Elsevier BV, 2020-12-01)
The Predictive Processing Theory (PP) and its foundational Free Energy Principle (FEP) provide a unifying theoretical groundwork that subsumes theories of perception, cognition, and action. Recently Colin Klein (2018) contends that PP-FEP cannot explain adaptive action with the same force that they deal with perceptions. In his answer to the objection, Clark (2020) points out that FEP explains action, desire and motivation on the basis of minimisation of energy. I argue that this answer begs the question of...
Mind the Gap: Reconciling Formalism and Intuitionism in Computational Design Research
Mennan, Zeynep (Delft University of Technology, 2014)
The paper discusses the epistemological and methodological implications of an increasing process of formalisation and naturalisation of knowledge within the context of the complexity paradigm. This process is argued to induce a shift in the nature of notations and representations, to which corresponds an epistemic shift from a graphic to a computational rationality, with substantial effects on current design methodologies and strategies used in computational design. The shortcomings of a heavy formalism are...
Temporal neuro-fuzzy MAR Algorithm for time series data in rule-based systems
Sisman, NA; Alpaslan, Ferda Nur (1998-04-23)
This paper introduces a new neuro-fuzzy model for constructing a knowledge-base of temporal fuzzy rules obtained by MAR (Multivariate Autoregressive) Algorithm. The model described contains two main parts which are fuzzy-rule extraction and storage of them. The fuzzy rules are obtained from time series data using MAR Algorithm. Fuzzy linear function with fuzzy number coefficients are used. The extracted rules are fed into the temporal fuzzy multilayer feedforward neural network.
What is a computational constraint?
Bozşahin, Hüseyin Cem (2016-01-01)
The paper argues that a computational constraint is one that appeals to control of computational resources in a computationalist explanation. Such constraints may arise in a theory and in its models. Instrumental use of the same concept is trivial because the constraining behavior of any function eventually reduces to its computation. Computationalism is not instrumentalism. Born-again computationalism, which is an ardent form of pancomputationalism, may need some soul searching about whether a genuinely co...
Multinucleon transfer in central collisions of U-238+U-238
Ayik, S.; YILMAZ, BÜLENT; YILMAZ TÜZÜN, ÖZGÜL; Umar, A. S.; Turan, Gürsevil (2017-08-14)
Quantal diffusion mechanism of nucleon exchange is studied in the central collisions of U-238 + U-238 in the framework of the stochastic mean-field (SMF) approach. For bombarding energies considered in this work, the dinuclear structure is maintained during the collision. Hence, it is possible to describe nucleon exchange as a diffusion process for mass and charge asymmetry. Quantal neutron and proton diffusion coefficients, including memory effects, are extracted from the SMF approach and the primary fragm...
Citation Formats
M. Davoody Benı, “Casting inference to the best explanation’s lot with active inference,” Theoria (Sweden), pp. 0–0, 2023, Accessed: 00, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85147430031&origin=inward.