Of Rats and Men III
A Pragmatist Reconstruction of Advanced Agency via the Active Inference
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22147348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zbigniew Słuszkiewicz (0000-0001-7734-8484, Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-43 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Zoophilologica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2451-3849 • E-ISSN: 2719-2687 |
| Publisher | University of Silesia in Katowice (PUBLISHER • PL) |
| DOI | 10.31261/zoophilologica.2025.15.15 |
| OpenAlex | W4412068785 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 112 |
The final part of the triptych (Of Rats and Men) synthesises the entire series, which aims to (1) challenge selected foundational assumptions of traditional philosophical discourse on human and nonhuman minds, (2) demonstrate how the tools of “the pragmatic turn” can deepen our understanding of animal agency, and (3) provide a posteriori support for gradualist categories of moral agency, such as Mark Rowlands’s concept of “the moral subject.” We pursue these goals by exploring the characteristic features of an advanced form of agency. Building on the themes introduced in Of Rats and Men II, we employ the theory of active inference (AIN) to determine how the processes of counterfactual inferencing and self-evidencing foster its emergence. In this context, Jakob Hohwy’s theoretical analysis is juxtaposed with experimental results on rodents, suggesting that the capacity for experiencing self-evidencing at a psychophysical level falls within the scope of the sense of agency (SoA) and may extend beyond our species.To investigate this phenomenon, we propose an AIN-based interpretation of Antonella Tramacere and Colin Allen’s “temporal binding” experiment. Finally, we position the concept of rats as beings capable of achieving a cognitively sophisticated level of agency within Michael Levin’s “cognitive light cones” framework to illustrate its ontological coherence
Epistemology · Inference · Pragmatism · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology
Active Inference
Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self
Simulation, situated conceptualization, and prediction
Real Patterns
Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle
The theory of constructed emotion
Philosophical conceptions of the self
Voluntary action and conscious awareness
A Neural Substrate of Prediction and Reward
Active interoceptive inference and the emotional brain
The Markov blankets of life
Sense of agency in the human brain
Szczur w badaniach psychologii społecznej i w naukach kognitywnych. Bestia sacer czy istota motywowana moralnie
O logice zwierzęcych umweltów. Subiektywna teraźniejszość zwierząt, czyli zoosemiotyka wyboru i uczenia się
Of Rats and Men I
How Do Living Systems Create Meaning
Conscious Self-Evidencing
Unsymbolized thinking
Predictive behavior and causal learning in animals and humans 1
Mind in Nature
Temporal binding
Happily entangled
What Is It Like to Be a Bat
Grounded Cognition
Umwelt or Umwelten? How should shared representation be understood given such diversity
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |