Concept

Abductive reasoning

Overview

form of logical inference that seeks the best conclusion that explains a set of given observations

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Philosophers who discussed Abductive reasoning

• Norwood Russell Hanson
• Jerry Fodor
• Charles Sanders Peirce
• Lorenzo Magnani
• Nalin de Silva

Related ideas

• Method of analytic tableaux
• Analogy
• Paul Carus
• First-order logic
• Francis Bacon
• Artificial intelligence
• Philosophy
• Karl Popper
• Gilbert Harman
• Synthese
• Logic programming
• Proof theory
• Medicine
• Explanation
• Domain of discourse
• Simplicity
• Princeton University
• Sequent calculus
• Science
• Social science
• Scientific method
• Scientific realism
• Sherlock Holmes
• Pragmaticism

Opposing perspectives

• Critical thinking

Place in the tradition

Part of American philosophy.

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