Scientific realism about Friston blankets without literalism

Bruineberg and colleagues' critique of Friston blankets relies on what we call the literalist fallacy: the assumption that in order for Friston blankets to represent real boundaries, biological systems must literally possess or instantiate Markov blankets. We argue that it is important to distinguish a realist view of Friston blankets from the literalist view of Bruineberg and colleagues' critique.