{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]],"date-time":"2026-03-14T16:53:33Z","timestamp":1773507213522,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":146,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,13]],"date-time":"2020-08-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1597276800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000155","name":"Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship 756-2020-0704"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship 756-2020-0704"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000155","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010269","name":"Wellcome Trust","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Principal Research Fellowship 088130\/Z\/09\/Z"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Principal Research Fellowship 088130\/Z\/09\/Z"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010269","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001777","name":"University of Wollongong","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["International Postgraduate Award"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["International Postgraduate Award"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001777","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to assess whether the construct of neural representations plays an explanatory role under the variational free-energy principle and its corollary process theory, active inference; and (2) if so, to assess which philosophical stance\u2014in relation to the ontological and epistemological status of representations\u2014is most appropriate. We focus on non-realist (deflationary and fictionalist-instrumentalist) approaches. We consider a deflationary account of mental representation, according to which the explanatorily relevant contents of neural representations are mathematical, rather than cognitive, and a fictionalist or instrumentalist account, according to which representations are scientifically useful fictions that serve explanatory (and other) aims. After reviewing the free-energy principle and active inference, we argue that the model of adaptive phenotypes under the free-energy principle can be used to furnish a formal semantics, enabling us to assign semantic content to specific phenotypic states (the internal states of a Markovian system that exists far from equilibrium). We propose a modified fictionalist account\u2014an organism-centered fictionalism or instrumentalism. We argue that, under the free-energy principle, pursuing even a deflationary account of the content of neural representations licenses the appeal to the kind of semantic content involved in the \u2018aboutness\u2019 or intentionality of cognitive systems; our position is thus coherent with, but rests on distinct assumptions from, the realist position. We argue that the free-energy principle thereby explains the aboutness or intentionality in living systems and hence their capacity to parse their sensory stream using an ontology or set of semantic factors.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e22080889","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,13]],"date-time":"2020-08-13T09:23:44Z","timestamp":1597310624000},"page":"889","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":64,"title":["Is the Free-Energy Principle a Formal Theory of Semantics? From Variational Density Dynamics to Neural and Phenotypic Representations"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Maxwell J. D.","family":"Ramstead","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1, Canada"},{"name":"Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1, Canada"},{"name":"Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, WC1N 3AR, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7984-8909","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karl J.","family":"Friston","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, WC1N 3AR, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6351-9975","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"In\u00eas","family":"Hip\u00f3lito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, Australia"},{"name":"Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King\u2019s College London, London SE5 8AF, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Brentano, F. 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