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This book examines the philosophical conception of abductive
reasoning as developed by Charles S. Peirce, the founder of
American pragmatism. It explores the historical and systematic
connections of Peirce's original ideas and debates about their
interpretations. Abduction is understood in a broad sense which
covers the discovery and pursuit of hypotheses and inference to the
best explanation. The analysis presents fresh insights into this
notion of reasoning, which derives from effects to causes or from
surprising observations to explanatory theories. The author
outlines some logical and AI approaches to abduction as well as
studies various kinds of inverse problems in astronomy, physics,
medicine, biology, and human sciences to provide examples of
retroductions and abductions. The discussion covers also everyday
examples with the implication of this notion in detective stories,
one of Peirce's own favorite themes. The author uses Bayesian
probabilities to argue that explanatory abduction is a method of
confirmation. He uses his own account of truth approximation to
reformulate abduction as inference which leads to the truthlikeness
of its conclusion. This allows a powerful abductive defense of
scientific realism. This up-to-date survey and defense of the
Peircean view of abduction may very well help researchers,
students, and philosophers better understand the logic of
truth-seeking.
Finnish philosopher Eino Kaila wrote a classic statement of logical
empiricism. Having experienced the foundational debates of the
Vienna Circle in 1929, Kaila was a keen follower of the further
developments of the Circle. His synoptic presentation and analysis
of the basic themes, or "theses," of the movement was based on his
lectures as professor of theoretical philosophy at the University
of Helsinki. The work appeared as a book in Finnish in 1939 and a
Swedish translation by Georg Henrik von Wright followed
immediately. Earlier, a translation of his philosophical essays
from the original German, entitled "Reality and Experience,"
appeared in 1979. However, this is the first translation of Kaila's
major epistemological work, which remains a source for
re-evaluations of Logical Empiricism.
Ilkka Niiniluoto comes to the rescue of realism in the philosophy of science. Philosophical realism holds that the aim of a particular discourse is to make true statements about its subject-matter. Niiniluoto surveys different kinds of realism in various areas of philosophy, then sets out his own critical realist philosophy of science, characterizing scientific progress in terms of increasing truthlikeness, and defends this theory against its rivals.
Ilkka Niiniluoto comes to the rescue of scientific realism, showing
that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
Philosophical realism holds that the aim of a particular discourse
is to make true statements about its subject-matter. Niiniluoto
surveys the different varieties of realism in ontology, semantics,
epistemology, theory construction, and methodology. He then sets
out his own original version, and defends it against competing
theories in the philosophy of science. Niiniluoto's critical
scientific realism is founded upon the notion of truth as
correspondence between language and reality, and characterizes
scientific progress in terms of increasing truthlikeness. This
makes it possible not only to take seriously, but also to make
precise, the troublesome idea that scientific theories typically
are false but nevertheless close to the truth.
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