Abductive cognition : the epistemological and eco-cognitive dimensions of hypothetical reasoning

Bibliographic Information

Abductive cognition : the epistemological and eco-cognitive dimensions of hypothetical reasoning

Lorenzo Magnani

(Cognitive systems monographs / editors, Rüdiger Dillmann ... [et al.], v. 3)

Springer, c2009

  • : hbk

Available at  / 5 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-513) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Thisvolumeexploresabductivecognition,animportantbut,atleastuntilthe third quarter of the last century, neglected topic in cognition. It integrates and further develops ideas already introduced in a previous book, which I published in 2001 (Abduction, Reason, and Science. Processes of Discovery and Explanation, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York). Thestatusofabductionisverycontroversial. Whendealingwithabductive reasoning misinterpretations and equivocations are common. What are the di?erences between abduction and induction? What are the di?erences - tween abduction and the well-known hypothetico-deductive method? What did Peircemeanwhen heconsideredabductionboth a kindofinferenceanda kind of instinct or when he considered perception a kind of abduction? Does abduction involve only the generation of hypotheses or their evaluation too? Are the criteria for the best explanation in abductive reasoning epistemic, or pragmatic, or both? Does abduction preserve ignorance or extend truth or both? How many kinds of abduction are there? Is abduction merely a kind of "explanatory" inference or does it involve other non-explanatory ways of guessing hypotheses? The book aims at increasing knowledge about creative and expert inf- ences. The study of these high-level methods of abductive reasoning is s- uated at the crossroads of philosophy, logic, epistemology, arti?cial intel- gence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, animal cognition and evolutionary theories; that is, at the heart of cognitive science. Philosophers of science in thetwentiethcenturyhavetraditionallydistinguishedbetweentheinferential processesactiveinthelogicofdiscoveryandtheonesactiveinthelogicofj- ti?cation. Most have concluded that no logic of creative processes exists and, moreover,that a rational model of discovery is impossible. In short, scienti?c creative inferences are irrational and there is no "reasoning" to hypotheses.

Table of Contents

Theoretical and Manipulative Abduction.- Non-explanatory and Instrumental Abduction.- Semiotic Brains and Artificial Minds.- Neuro-multimodal Abduction.- Animal Abduction.- Abduction, Affordances, and Cognitive Niches.- Abduction in Human and Logical Agents.- Morphodynamical Abduction.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Related Books: 1-1 of 1

Details

  • NCID
    BB02130096
  • ISBN
    • 9783642036309
  • Country Code
    gw
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Berlin ; Heidelberg
  • Pages/Volumes
    xxiii, 534 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Parent Bibliography ID
Page Top