A Myth in Creation

The dialogue continues! Responding to Richard Gipps's post  contra aftab contra gipps contra seth Gipps is quite right to point out that Seth (and other neuroscientists) have not been entirely clear about the sense in which they are using the terms such as "inference" and "prediction" when applied to neurological processes, how this usage departs from "ordinary" usage, and that this lack of clarity leads to confusion, inconsistency, and yes, possibly erroneous inferences. On this issue I am in agreement. While the project of bringing philosophical clarity to these neuroscientific terms is not necessarily easy, it is not impossible. Where I disagree with Gipps is that he seems to think that the entire project of explaining perception is muddled because there is no meaningful question to be answered, and that there is no meaningful way in which brains can be said to "infer" anything other than in a completely metaphorical manner. My own view is