Head to head
Eliminative Materialism vs Free Energy Principle
Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism and Friston’s free-energy principle and active inference, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.
At a glance
- Both belong to the Materialism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness.
- They give the same kind of answer on life after death and meaning and purpose.
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The claim
In brief
Eliminative MaterialismPaul and Patricia Churchland hold that common-sense psychology, our everyday talk of beliefs, desires, and experiences, is a radically false theory that a completed neuroscience will displace rather than smoothly reduce. Consciousness as we ordinarily conceive it is a brain-generated picture shaped by evolution, and our self-understanding, introspection included, will be rebuilt in neuroscientific terms.
Free Energy PrincipleThis theory conceptualizes consciousness as a natural process arising from the minimization of 'free energy,' which is the difference between an organism's internal model (perceptual expectations) and real-time sensory inputs. Consciousness, therefore, functions as the evolved mechanism for simulating scenarios of the world and reducing prediction error to ensure survival and maintain homeostasis.
What consciousness is
Eliminative MaterialismWhat we call consciousness, as folk psychology describes it, does not exist in that form. The real phenomena are neural processes, which only a mature neuroscience will describe correctly.
Free Energy PrincipleConsciousness is identified as a natural process of inference, specifically the internal emergent model that monitors and minimizes the free energy principle (surprise), thereby optimizing the representational capacities of physical/brain systems.
Big questions
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Free Energy PrincipleYesAs a strong materialist theory, if consciousness is fully explained by computational processes of inference and representation minimization, then non-biological systems capable of executing these processes must eventually attain consciousness in principle.
Does consciousness survive death?Both agree
Eliminative MaterialismNoSince the mind is the brain, nothing mental survives the brain’s death.
Free Energy PrincipleNoConsciousness is an emergent natural process tied directly to the functional dynamics and physical substrate of the biological brain; thus, it cannot survive bodily decay.
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Free Energy PrincipleYesSince consciousness is understood as an emergent, formalized process of inference optimization, perfect duplication of the brain's information processing and representational dynamics in a non-biological medium should be sufficient for the continuation of the mental self.
Does it give life meaning?Both agree
Eliminative MaterialismHumanistic onlyPatricia Churchland urges us to see ourselves as organisms in nature, understood by scientific methods, with no cosmic purpose.
Free Energy PrincipleHumanistic onlyThe foundational imperative of the conscious process is survival (minimizing surprise/maintaining homeostasis). The theory does not rationalize ultimate cosmic meaning or purpose, aligning with general materialist perspectives.
Nature of mind
Ontology
Eliminative MaterialismPhysicalism (eliminative)
Free Energy PrinciplePhysicalism; often referred to as Markovian Monism, which views mind/matter distinction as dialectical rather than ontological.
Mind and body
Eliminative MaterialismThe mind is the brain. Patricia Churchland calls her program a ‘unified theory of the mind-brain’ and treats claims that mind goes beyond brain as the residue of folk myths.
Free Energy PrincipleMonistic/Identity. The theory proposes that consciousness is the natural outcome of the physical/brain system's self-organizing processes, dissolving familiar dialectics between mind and matter.
Fundamental or emergent
Eliminative MaterialismNeither
Free Energy PrincipleEmergent
Qualia
Eliminative MaterialismQualia as folk psychology and philosophers conceive them are expected to give way to neuroscientific description; the view treats consciousness as a kind of illusion generated by the brain.
Free Energy PrincipleThe theory is highly deflationary regarding the Hard Problem, treating consciousness as a process to be understood rather than a 'thing' whose qualitative attributes need definition. Qualia, if acknowledged, would be epiphenomena or aspects of the internal generative model required for inference.
How it works
Mechanism
Eliminative MaterialismTheory displacement. Folk psychology will be replaced the way outdated scientific theories were, its principles and ontology discarded rather than mapped onto brain states.
Free Energy PrincipleThe Free-Energy Principle (FEP), which states that all self-organizing systems must minimize free energy (or 'surprise'), driving action and perception through active inference.
Where it is
Eliminative MaterialismIn the brain.
Free Energy PrincipleLocalized in the physical brain system; cortical responses are seen as the brain’s attempt to minimize free energy.
What it does
Eliminative MaterialismBehavior is caused by neural processes; neuroscience is expected to explain it better than folk psychology does.
Free Energy PrincipleConsciousness serves an adaptive and functional role as the evolved mechanism for simulating scenarios, monitoring, and minimizing free energy to promote survival (homeostasis) and navigate the world.
Evidence and criticism
Testability
Eliminative MaterialismConceptually testable
Free Energy PrincipleConceptually and empirically linked to testable models (e.g., in neurobiology and psychology) through its reliance on formalizing representational capacities of physical systems.
Tests so far
Eliminative MaterialismThe view stakes its claim on the future course of neuroscience; whether folk categories survive in mature brain science is the long-run test.
Free Energy PrincipleThe principles of FEP form the basis for models utilized in empirical work concerning altered states (e.g., the Entropic Brain Hypothesis under psychedelics) and related theories of perception and cognition.
Criticisms
Eliminative MaterialismCritics say denying subjective experience defies both intuition and direct evidence; Galen Strawson calls the denial of experience ‘the strangest thing that has ever happened in the whole history of human thought’. There is also tension between Patricia Churchland’s talk of reduction to neurobiology and the eliminativist claim that folk psychology will be displaced rather than reduced.
Free Energy PrincipleCriticized for being highly deflationary and difficult to reconcile with the first-person reality of phenomenal experience (the Hard Problem), viewing consciousness merely as a mathematical process or 'natural outcome.' Friston finds engaging with the philosophical premise of consciousness as a 'thing' difficult.
Sources
Key sources
Eliminative Materialism
- Neurophilosophy, Patricia Churchland (1986)
- Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism (Landscape of Consciousness), Patricia Churchland
Free Energy Principle
- A theory of cortical responses, K. Friston (2005)
- Active interference: a process theory, K. Friston et al (2017)
- The Mathematics of Mind-Time, K. Friston (2017)