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Scientific realism about Friston blankets without literalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2022

Julian Kiverstein Open the ORCID record for Julian Kiverstein [Opens in a new window]  and
Michael Kirchhoff
Julian Kiverstein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centre, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [email protected]
Michael Kirchhoff
Affiliation:
Faculty of Art, Social Sciences and Humanities, School of Liberal Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia [email protected]
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Abstract

Bruineberg and colleagues' critique of Friston blankets relies on what we call the “literalist fallacy”: the assumption that in order for Friston blankets to represent real boundaries, biological systems must literally possess or instantiate Markov blankets. We argue that it is important to distinguish a realist view of Friston blankets from the literalist view of Bruineberg and colleagues’ critique.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e200
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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