An active inference approach to semiotics

This chapter revisits seminal work on (Peircean) semiotics under the auspices of active inference, a theory of adaptive, belief-based behavior that has cast perception, learning, and action as forms of (variational or Bayesian) inference. We argue that active inference features a semiotic structure that admits a partial integration and formalization of semiotic concepts, notably including abductive inference, Peircean interpretants, and the icon/index/symbol triad. The resulting framework may motivate interdisciplinary treatments of semiotics in the sciences of life and mind – namely, neurosemiotics – to help understand the nature of meaning in relation to neuronal processes and accompanying perceptual inference.