The Emperor's New Markov Blankets
The Emperor's New Markov Blankets
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DOI：
10.1017/s0140525x21002351
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发表时间：
2022-01-01
影响因子：
29.3
通讯作者：
Baltieri, Manuel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bruineberg, Jelle;Dolega, Krzysztof;Baltieri, Manuel
自由能原理是计算神经科学和理论神经生物学中一个有影响的框架，它的出发点是假设生命系统通过最小化变分自由能的目标函数来确保与环境的适应性交换。遵循这一前提，它声称提供了一个有前途的整合生命科学。在最近的研究中，马尔可夫毯（英语：Markov blanket），自由能原理的核心结构之一，已经被应用于解决哲学的核心争论（例如划分心灵的边界）。该文致力于研究两个问题.首先，我们追溯了马尔可夫毯子的发展，从它们在贝叶斯网络中的标准应用开始，通过变分推理，到它们在主动推理文献中的使用。然后，我们在文献中发现了一个持续的混淆，即马尔可夫毯子的形式用途是作为贝叶斯推理的认识工具，而它们在自由能框架中的新的形而上学用途是划定主体与其环境之间的物理边界。因此，我们建议区分“珍珠毯子”和“弗里斯顿毯子”，前者指的是马尔可夫毯子最初的认识论用法，后者指的是新的形而上学建构。第二，我们用这一区别来批判性地评估基于马尔可夫毯子在哲学问题上的应用的主张。我们认为，这篇文献可以很好地区分两种不同的研究方案：“模型推理”和“模型内推理”。“只有后者能够做形而上学的工作与马尔可夫毯，但需要额外的哲学前提，不能证明是一个呼吁的成功，数学框架。
The free energy principle, an influential framework in computational neuroscience and theoretical neurobiology, starts from the assumption that living systems ensure adaptive exchanges with their environment by minimizing the objective function of variational free energy. Following this premise, it claims to deliver a promising integration of the life sciences. In recent work, Markov blankets, one of the central constructs of the free energy principle, have been applied to resolve debates central to philosophy (such as demarcating the boundaries of the mind). The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we trace the development of Markov blankets starting from their standard application in Bayesian networks, via variational inference, to their use in the literature on active inference. We then identify a persistent confusion in the literature between the formal use of Markov blankets as an epistemic tool for Bayesian inference, and their novel metaphysical use in the free energy framework to demarcate the physical boundary between an agent and its environment. Consequently, we propose to distinguish between "Pearl blankets" to refer to the original epistemic use of Markov blankets and "Friston blankets" to refer to the new metaphysical construct. Second, we use this distinction to critically assess claims resting on the application of Markov blankets to philosophical problems. We suggest that this literature would do well in differentiating between two different research programmes: "inference with a model" and "inference within a model." Only the latter is capable of doing metaphysical work with Markov blankets, but requires additional philosophical premises and cannot be justified by an appeal to the success of the mathematical framework alone.