Some distinctions between Charles S. Peirce’s Abduction and Gilbert Harman’s Inference to the Best Explanation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v13i2.60451Keywords:
Abduction, Inference to the Best Explanation, Abductive Reasoning, Charles Peirce, Gilbert HarmanAbstract
It is common to find, in Philosophy of Science literature, Charles S. Peirce’s abduction, or abductive reasoning, as synonymous with Gilbert Harman’s inference to the best explanation (IBE). However, although this identification is frequent, some authors have suggested that this may be a misunderstanding caused by the poor contextualization of the concept of abduction in peircean philosophy. Therefore, this article seeks to offer an exegetical analysis of both the concept of abduction and the inference to the best explanation, in order to clarify the issue. I argue that Peirce’s abduction should not be taken as equivalent to Harman’s inference to the best explanation, since abduction describes the creative generation of hypotheses, while IBE describes the selection process of the most explanatory hypothesis among a previously formulated set of alternatives.
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