Volume 18, 2017
Patricia King Dávalos
Pages 71-78
The Hypothesis of the (Action-Oriented) Predictive Brain
Experiencing the Being that Anticipates the Being
The neuroscientific proposal known as "Hypothesis of the Predictive Brain" [HPB] is contrasted with other hypotheses, specifically, the “Hypothesis of the Features Recognizer Brain” [HFRB]. The main advantages of HPB and its overall rationale are grounded in the concept of the “active brain,” and its relation to human action. This account appears in Andy Clark’s action-oriented version of this HPB. My aim is to show that this notion of the active brain produces a concept much closer to the Marxist idea of the phenomenological experience of the individual and social action; it helps us to further deepen our understanding of living beings, and has strong implications. I conclude that HPB is a sound hypothesis, inescapable and, especially in its action-oriented version, valuable to the cognitive sciences and philosophy, as well as to any other human activity.