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Ancient method of investigation and reasoning, stemming from Aristotle's logic, which gained scientific legitimation thanks to Charles S. Peirce. A surprising phenomenon, X, is observed. Among hypotheses A, B, and C, A is capable of explaining X. Hence, there is a reason to pursue A. Peirce ascribes the origin of the term to Aristotle, precisely to the word άπάγωγη, apagoge, translated as abduction (erroneously, according to Peirce, who thought the right translation should be "retroduction"; in his writings he uses both terms). The usage and contents of "abduction" are in conflict with "deduction" and "induction". If deduction means to proceed from a rule and a case to a result, and if induction proceeds from a result and a case to a rule, then abduction proceeds from a rule and a result to a case. Abduction is thus a "logic of discovery", a kind of critical thinking which opens doors of opportunity for scientific research and which, in the end, confirms the classifications provided by inductive and deductive procedures. In practice, according to Peirce, scientific investigation should go through the following phases: (1) Observation of an anomaly; (2) Abduction of hypotheses that explain the anomaly; (3) Inductive testing of the hypotheses in experiments; (4) Deductive confirmation that the selected hypothesis predicts the original anomaly.

DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-9249-6_4

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