{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T01:10:42Z","timestamp":1760145042294,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,17]],"date-time":"2024-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1718582400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Three Springs Foundation"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Karl Friston\u2019s free-energy principle casts agents as self-evidencing through active inference. This implies that decision-making, planning and information-seeking are, in a generic sense, \u2018wishful\u2019. We take an interdisciplinary perspective on this perplexing aspect of the free-energy principle and unpack the epistemological implications of wishful thinking under the free-energy principle. We use this epistemic framing to discuss the emergence of biases for self-evidencing agents. In particular, we argue that this elucidates an optimism bias as a foundational tenet of self-evidencing. We allude to a historical precursor to some of these themes, interestingly found in Machiavelli\u2019s oeuvre, to contextualise the universal optimism of the free-energy principle.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e26060518","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,17]],"date-time":"2024-06-17T08:48:31Z","timestamp":1718614111000},"page":"518","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["The Universal Optimism of the Self-Evidencing Mind"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9557-9291","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elizabeth L.","family":"Fisher","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3906-3060","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jakob","family":"Hohwy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Parr, T., Pezzulo, G., and Friston, K.J. 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