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Epistemic

Epistemic refers to how a system accesses, represents, or reasons about ontic structure given its particular perspective and capacities.

Epistemic structure does not determine what exists or what happens. It determines which distinctions are accessible, resolvable, or usable by a system. Different systems may form different epistemic states while interacting with the same underlying ontic reality.

Epistemic limitations arise from finite resolution, incomplete access, noise, and internal modeling constraints. As a result, epistemic states may be partial, approximate, or incorrect without altering the physical structure they describe.

Through this role, the epistemic:

• constrains which distinctions a system can detect or track,
• limits which explanations or models can be constructed,
• enables representation and inference without introducing causal influence on dynamics.

Distillation

Epistemic describes how reality is accessed, not how it is made.

Why it matters

• Ontic: Prevents conflating description with physical structure.
• Perspective: Explains why different systems access the same reality differently.
• AI and cognition: Allows models, beliefs, and representations without anthropocentrism.
• RDD coherence: Enforces a strict boundary between access and causation.

Links

Related atoms

• Distinction
• Epistemic
• Perspective
• Umwelt

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Used in molecules

Conflicts with

• Views that treat observation, belief, or interpretation as causally generative.
• Accounts that collapse epistemic access into ontic structure.
• Anthropocentric theories that reserve epistemic states for human minds.

Sources

• Source: Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory?

  • Key: @fristonFreeenergyPrincipleUnified2010
  • Use here: Illustrates epistemic models as constrained mappings onto underlying dynamics without teleological causation.

• Source: Dennett, D. C. (1987). The Intentional Stance.

  • Key: @dennettIntentionalStance1987
  • Use here: Distinguishes explanatory stances without reifying them as physical causes.

Re-contextualization Log

• 2025-12-29
  • context: Required strict separation between access and structure across RDD atoms
  • effect: refined
  • note: Compressed epistemic definition to a non-causal access role; clarified that epistemic states constrain explanations and models without altering ontic dynamics.