self-evidencing

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Self-evidencing is RB2’s Hohwyan formulation of a predictive system’s continuing effort to obtain sensory evidence for its explanatory model through perception and action. The relevant evidence is constrained by the system’s sensory interface. The proposal distinguishes this theoretical relation from proving one’s own certainty, moral self-justification or evidence that a system possesses conscious self-awareness.

Explanation

The local section connects inference about hidden causes with the sensory states through which a system meets its world. Self-evidencing names this organization of model and evidence, not a claim that every expectation verifies itself. Prediction error and worldly resistance keep updating and correction possible.

The evidentiary boundary concerns access through sensory states, while Clark emphasizes active sampling and environmental scaffolding. These emphases remain distinct within the source’s discussion. The entry does not turn a mediated interface into causal isolation, nor does it erase the difference between receiving evidence and changing the conditions under which it is received.

The later free-energy discussion qualifies inference-language as an as-if modeling strategy unless a stronger reading is separately defended. Thus persistent model-evidence relations do not by themselves establish a reflective self, subjective feeling or a complete account of living organization. The term retains its predictive-theory scope rather than an unrestricted philosophical guarantee.

Scope and attribution

Preserve Hohwy attribution, correction and as-if limits.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Hohwy’s model-evidence relation remains answerable to input and distinct from Clark’s scaffold emphasis.

Occurrence locators: 114, 117, 118, 119.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Self-evidencing is distinguished from general free-energy foundations and as-if inference qualifications.