{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T23:54:01Z","timestamp":1790207641297,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":72,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]],"date-time":"2024-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1726617600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"German Research Foundation DFG","award":["274877981"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["274877981"]}]},{"name":"German Research Foundation DFG","award":["#101055060"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["#101055060"]}]},{"name":"European Union","award":["274877981"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["274877981"]}]},{"name":"European Union","award":["#101055060"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["#101055060"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The claim that the free energy principle is somehow related to Hamilton\u2019s principle in statistical mechanics is ubiquitous throughout the subject literature. However, the exact nature of this relationship remains unclear. According to some sources, the free energy principle is merely similar to Hamilton\u2019s principle of stationary action; others claim that it is either analogous or equivalent to it, while yet another part of the literature espouses the claim that it is a version of Hamilton\u2019s principle. In this article, we aim to clarify the nature of the relationship between the two principles by investigating the two most likely interpretations of the claims that can be found in the subject literature. According to the strong interpretation, the two principles are equivalent and apply to the same subset of physical phenomena; according to the weak interpretation, the two principles are merely analogous to each other by virtue of their similar formal structures. As we show, adopting the stronger reading would lead to a dilemma that is untenable for the proponents of the free energy principle, thus supporting the adoption of the weaker reading for the relationship between the two constructs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e26090797","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,19]],"date-time":"2024-09-19T04:59:54Z","timestamp":1726721994000},"page":"797","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Forced Friends: Why the Free Energy Principle Is Not the New Hamilton\u2019s Principle"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4107-2425","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bartosz Micha\u0142","family":"Radomski","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Philosophy II, Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6859-6179","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Krzysztof","family":"Do\u0142\u0119ga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences, Universit\u00e9 libre de Bruxelles, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Laumond, J.-P., Mansard, N., and Lasserre, J.-B. 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