Abductive reasoning
Abduction is a form of logical inference that goes from observation to a hypothesis that accounts for the reliable data and seeks to explain relevant evidence. The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce first introduced the term as "guessing". Peirce said that to
abduce a hypothetical explanation from an observed surprising circumstance is to surmise that may be true because then would be a matter of course. Thus, to abduce from involves determining that is sufficient, but not necessary, for. For example,
the lawn is wet. But if
it rained last night, then it would be unsurprising that
the lawn is wet. Therefore, by abductive reasoning, the possibility that
it rained last night is reasonable. Moreover, abducing
rain last night from the observation of the wet lawn can lead to a false conclusion. In this example, dew, lawn sprinklers, or some other process may have resulted in the wet lawn, even in the absence of rain. Peirce argues that good abductive reasoning from
P to
Q involves not simply a determination that, e.g.