Abduction, Reason and Science
Processes of Discovery and Explanation

Ties together the concerns of philosophers of science and AI researchers, showing for example the connections between scientific thinking and medical expert systems. This book also lays out a general framework for discussion of a variety of kinds of abduction.

This new book, "Abduction, Reason, and Science" contributes to this research in several interesting ways. Firstly, it ties together the concerns of philosophers of science and AI researchers, showing for example the connections between scientific thinking and medical expert systems. Secondly, it lays out a useful general framework for discussion of a variety of kinds of abduction. Thirdly, it develops important ideas about aspects of abductive reasoning that have been relatively neglected in cognitive science, including the use of visual and temporal representations and the role of abduction in the withdrawal of hypotheses. The author has provided a valuable contribution to the renaissance of research on explanatory reasoning.

1. Hypothesis Generation. 2. Theoretical
Abduction. 3. Manipulative abduction. 4. Diagnostic
Reasoning. 5. Visual, Temporal Abduction. 6. Governing
inconsistencies. 7. Hypothesis Withdrawal in Science.
References. Author Index. Subject Index.