GC: n

CT: Abduction or, as it is also often called, Inference to the Best Explanation is a type of inference that assigns special status to explanatory considerations. Most philosophers agree that this type of inference is frequently employed, in some form or other, both in everyday and in scientific reasoning. However, the exact form as well as the normative status of abduction are still matters of controversy.

S: Stanford – http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abduction/ (last access: 11 September 2014)

N: 1. From Latin abductionem (nominative abductio), noun of action from past participle stem of abducere “to lead away, take away” (often by force), from ab- “away” (see ab-) + ducere “to lead”.
2. Nondeductive rationality that is indispensable to at least much of the higher intelligence displayed by human beings is reasoning to a conclusion that essentially contains terms not included in the premises. This typically occurs when someone gets a good idea about how to explain some data in terms of a hypothesis that mentions phenomena that have not been observed in the data.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=abduction&searchmode=none (last access: 11 September 2014). 2. EncBrit (last access: 11 September 2014).

SYN: abductive inference

S: TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 11 September 2014)

CR: artificial intelligence, cognition, cognitive science, computer science, expert system.