TY - JOUR
T1 - First principles in the life sciences
T2 - the free-energy principle, organicism, and mechanism
AU - Colombo, Matteo
AU - Wright, Cory
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Marshall Abrams, Joe Dewhurst, Giuseppe Longo, Matteo Mossio, Galen Pickett, the participants of the 2018 workshop “The Promise of Predictive Processing” at Tufts University, and two anonymous referees for helpful conversations and comments on previous versions of this paper. In addition, MC gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - The free-energy principle states that all systems that minimize their free energy resist a tendency to physical disintegration. Originally proposed to account for perception, learning, and action, the free-energy principle has been applied to the evolution, development, morphology, anatomy and function of the brain, and has been called a postulate, an unfalsifiable principle, a natural law, and an imperative. While it might afford a theoretical foundation for understanding the relationship between environment, life, and mind, its epistemic status is unclear. Also unclear is how the free-energy principle relates to prominent theoretical approaches to life science phenomena, such as organicism and mechanism. This paper clarifies both issues, and identifies limits and prospects for the free-energy principle as a first principle in the life sciences.
AB - The free-energy principle states that all systems that minimize their free energy resist a tendency to physical disintegration. Originally proposed to account for perception, learning, and action, the free-energy principle has been applied to the evolution, development, morphology, anatomy and function of the brain, and has been called a postulate, an unfalsifiable principle, a natural law, and an imperative. While it might afford a theoretical foundation for understanding the relationship between environment, life, and mind, its epistemic status is unclear. Also unclear is how the free-energy principle relates to prominent theoretical approaches to life science phenomena, such as organicism and mechanism. This paper clarifies both issues, and identifies limits and prospects for the free-energy principle as a first principle in the life sciences.
KW - Adaptation
KW - Free energy
KW - Life
KW - Mechanism
KW - Organicism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053519379&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11229-018-01932-w
DO - 10.1007/s11229-018-01932-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85053519379
SN - 0039-7857
VL - 198
SP - 3463
EP - 3488
JO - Synthese
JF - Synthese
ER -