|
Philosophers
Mortimer Adler Rogers Albritton Alexander of Aphrodisias G.E.M.Anscombe Thomas Aquinas Aristotle David Armstrong Augustine A.J.Ayer Mark Balaguer William Belsham Isaiah Berlin Bernard Berofsky Susanne Bobzien George Boole F.H.Bradley C.D.Broad C.A.Campbell Joseph Keim Campbell Carneades Ernst Cassirer Roderick Chisholm Chrysippus Cicero Randolph Clarke Samuel Clarke Donald Davidson Democritus Daniel Dennett René Descartes Richard Double Fred Dretske John Earman Laura Waddell Ekstrom Epictetus Epicurus John Martin Fischer Owen Flanagan Philippa Foot Alfred Fouilleé Harry Frankfurt Richard L. Franklin Carl Ginet Nicholas St. John Green Ian Hacking Ishtiyaque Haji Stuart Hampshire Georg W.F. Hegel Martin Heidegger R.E.Hobart Thomas Hobbes David Hodgson Shadsworth Hodgson Ted Honderich Pamela Huby David Hume William James Robert Kane Immanuel Kant Tomis Kapitan Christine Korsgaard Keith Lehrer Gottfried Leibniz Leucippus C.I.Lewis David Lewis John Locke John R. Lucas Lucretius Hugh McCann Colin McGinn Michael McKenna Alfred Mele John Stuart Mill Dickinson Miller G.E.Moore Thomas Nagel Friedrich Nietzsche P.H.Nowell-Smith Robert Nozick William of Ockham Timothy O'Connor Charles Sanders Peirce Derk Pereboom Steven Pinker Plato Karl Popper H.A.Prichard Willard van Orman Quine Frank Ramsey Ayn Rand Thomas Reid Charles Renouvier Nicholas Rescher Josiah Royce Bertrand Russell Paul Russell Gilbert Ryle T.M.Scanlon Moritz Schlick Arthur Schopenhauer John Searle Henry Sidgwick Walter Sinnott-Armstrong J.J.C.Smart Saul Smilansky Michael Smith Galen Strawson Peter Strawson Eleonore Stump Richard Taylor Kevin Timpe Peter van Inwagen Manuel Vargas John Venn Kadri Vihvelin G.H. von Wright R. Jay Wallace Ted Warfield Roy Weatherford Alfred North Whitehead David Widerker David Wiggins Ludwig Wittgenstein Susan Wolf Scientists Margaret Boden Neils Bohr Ludwig Boltzmann Max Born Stephen Brush Arthur Holly Compton Abraham de Moivre John Eccles Arthur Stanley Eddington Albert Einstein Richard Feynman A.O.Gomes Joshua Greene Jacques Hadamard Martin Heisenberg Werner Heisenberg Pierre-Simon Laplace David Layzer Ernst Mach Henry Margenau James Clerk Maxwell Ernst Mayr Jacques Monod Steven Pinker Max Planck Henri Poincaré Erwin Schrödinger Herbert Simon B. F. Skinner William Thomson (Kelvin) John von Neumann Daniel Wegner Steven Weinberg |
Abduction
Deduction is the familar form of syllogistic reasoning in which from true premises one can derive necessarily true conclusions by following the rules of deductive logic. If all M are P, and S is M, then S is P.
Induction draws conclusions which are not certain from multiple examples. For example, if all observed swans are white, an inductive conclusion is "all swans are white." Or if two-thirds of observed cows are brown, the probability of another cow being brown is assumed to be two-thirds. This is the frequentist definition of probability.
If a jar contains 100 balls, 60 black and 40 white, then the probability of drawing a black ball is .6. This is a priori probability and is related to enumerative or exhaustive induction. If you know all the instances of swans in the pond are white, the conclusion "all swans in this pond are white" is true.
Abduction as a form of reasoning is relatively new. Charles Sanders Peirce called it abduction to infer a premise from a conclusion. For example, since if it rains, the grass gets wet, one can abduce (hypothesize) that it probably rained.
Strictly speaking, abductive reasoning is fallacious, a logical error. But Peirce argued that this kind of reasoning has evolved in humans, who have become adept at selecting the best hypothesis to explain the condition.
Peirce identified his abduction with the scientific method of hypothesis-deduction-observation-experiment. In this case, the scientist makes various guesses (hypotheses) to explain some observations. Once the hypothesis is formed, deduction is used to predict other logical consequences. Experiments then establish the truth or falsity of these consequences.
Notice that if the deductions predict phenomena not previously known, the confirmed consequences are not a part of the original phenomena that led to the hypothesis (usually inductively). Newly predicted (discovered) phenomena carry more weight than those originally known.
Peirce knew that hypotheses need not be arrived at by induction. They could be just intuitions or lucky guesses or, as Einstein later called them, "free creations of the human mind." Their origin does not matter (genetic fallacy). The "truth" of a hypothesis lies in its experimental verification and explanatory power.
For Teachers
For Scholars
|
