Mel Andrews

University of Cincinnati | UC · Department of Philosophy

Machine learning (ML) refers to a class of computer-facilitated methods of statistical modelling in which patterns are inferred from data. In the last decade, the efficacy and applicability of the tools of ML have undergone monumental advances, and they are consequently seeing wide and rapid uptake across the empirical sciences. In response, repres...

The principal target of this article is the reification Bruineberg et al. perceive of formalism within the literature on the variational free energy minimisation (VFEM) framework. The authors do not provide a definition of reification, as none yet exists. Here I offer one. On this definition, the objects of the authors’ critiques fall short of full...

The free energy principle (FEP) has seen extensive philosophical engagement— both from a general philosophy of science perspective and from the perspective of philosophies of specific sciences: cognitive science, neuroscience, and biology. The literature on the FEP has attempted to draw out specific philosophical commitments and entailments of the...

What does a generalization of evolutionary theory entail? Does such a theory exist in consensus use amongst biologists and philosophers of biology? The phrasing of the conference title itself suggests a positive reply. The conference, which took place from January 31st to February 3rd, 2018, at the Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Heinri...

This paper presents an introductory overview of a novel mathematical model of life and mind: the free energy principle. While extensions of the predictive and explanatory capacity of this framework continue to rapidly gain momentum, the details of the mathematical formalism—and what uses it may hold for philosophers and scientists—remain enigmatic...