Easy as 1, 2, 3: On the Short History of the Use of Affordance in Active Inference

Abstract

This short editorial is about the manner in which the construct of affordance figures in the active inference framework. First, I review the short history of the construct of affordance in ecological psychology, specifically in its guises as Affordance 1.0 and Affordance 2.0. I then discuss the manner in which the construct of affordance has been used in active inference—what I am calling, self-servingly, Affordance 3.0. I argue that the active inference concept of affordance recovers some of the core components of the original Gibsonian construct. I suggest that while active inference is not compatible with the assumptions that underwrite the field of study in which the affordance construct originated (i.e. ecological psychology), there is, at least arguably, nothing inherently problematic about the redeployment of this concept under a new guise in the active inference framework.