Sánchez-Cañizares Javier
Mind-Brain Group, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, 31009 Pamplona, Spain.
Entropy (Basel). 2021 Feb 19;23(2):238. doi: 10.3390/e23020238.
The Free Energy Principle (FEP) is currently one of the most promising frameworks with which to address a unified explanation of life-related phenomena. With powerful formalism that embeds a small set of assumptions, it purports to deal with complex adaptive dynamics ranging from barely unicellular organisms to complex cultural manifestations. The FEP has received increased attention in disciplines that study life, including some critique regarding its overall explanatory power and its true potential as a grand unifying theory (GUT). Recently, FEP theorists presented a contribution with the main tenets of their framework, together with possible philosophical interpretations, which lean towards so-called Markovian Monism (MM). The present paper assumes some of the abovementioned critiques, rejects the arguments advanced to invalidate the FEP's potential to be a GUT, and overcomes criticism thereof by reviewing FEP theorists' newly minted metaphysical commitment, namely MM. Specifically, it shows that this philosophical interpretation of the FEP argues circularly and only delivers what it initially assumes, i.e., a dual information geometry that allegedly explains epistemic access to the world based on prior dual assumptions. The origin of this circularity can be traced back to a physical description contingent on relative system-environment separation. However, the FEP itself is not committed to MM, and as a scientific theory it delivers more than what it assumes, serving as a heuristic unification principle that provides epistemic advancement for the life sciences.
自由能原理（FEP）目前是最有前景的框架之一，可用于对与生命相关的现象进行统一解释。它凭借强大的形式体系，内含少量假设，旨在处理从单细胞生物到复杂文化表现形式等各种复杂的适应性动态。FEP在研究生命的学科中受到了越来越多的关注，包括一些对其整体解释力及其作为大一统理论（GUT）的真正潜力的批评。最近，FEP理论家提出了他们框架的主要原则以及可能的哲学解释，这些解释倾向于所谓的马尔可夫一元论（MM）。本文接受了上述一些批评，反驳了那些旨在否定FEP成为大一统理论潜力的论点，并通过审视FEP理论家新提出的形而上学承诺，即MM，来克服对它的批评。具体而言，它表明对FEP的这种哲学解释存在循环论证，只是给出了它最初所假设的内容，即一种双重信息几何学，据称这种几何学基于先前的双重假设解释了对世界的认知途径。这种循环性的根源可以追溯到依赖于相对系统 - 环境分离的物理描述。然而，FEP本身并不致力于MM，作为一种科学理论，它所提供的内容超出了其假设，是一种启发式的统一原则，为生命科学提供了认知进步。
