This book gathers together novel essays on the state-of-the-art research into the logic and practice of abduction. In many ways, abduction has become established and essential to several fields, such as logic, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy of science, and methodology. In recent years this interest in abduction's many aspects and functions has accelerated. There are evidently several different interpretations and uses for abduction. Many fundamental questions on abduction remain open. How is abduction manifested in human cognition and intelligence? What kinds or types of abduction can be discerned? What is the role for abduction in inquiry and mathematical discovery? The chapters aim at providing answer to these and other current questions. Their contributors have been at the forefront of discussions on abduction, and offer here their updated approaches to the issues that they consider central to abduction's contemporary relevance. The book is an essential reading for any scholar or professional keeping up with disciplines impacted by the study of abductive reasoning, and its novel development and applications in various fields.

This book gathers together novel essays on the state-of-the-art research into the logic and practice of abduction. In many ways, abduction has become established and essential to several fields, such as logic, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy of science, and methodology. In recent years this interest in abduction's many aspects and functions has accelerated. There are evidently several different interpretations and uses for abduction. Many fundamental questions on abduction remain open. How is abduction manifested in human cognition and intelligence? What kinds or types of abduction can be discerned? What is the role for abduction in inquiry and mathematical discovery? The chapters aim at providing answer to these and other current questions. Their contributors have been at the forefront of discussions on abduction, and offer here their updated approaches to the issues that they consider central to abduction's contemporary relevance. The book is an essential reading for any scholar or professional keeping up with disciplines impacted by the study of abductive reasoning, and its novel development and applications in various fields.

Relying on a series of empirical workplace studies as well as an extensive review of psychological, sociological and educational literature, the authors develop a framework for examining human competence as a process of networked expertise. Networked expertise refers to competencies that arise from social interaction, knowledge sharing, and collective problem solving. These are embedded in communities and organized groups of experts and professionals. Cognition and intelligent activity are not only individual and mental processes but ones which rely on socio-culturally developed cognitive tools. These include physical and conceptual artifacts as well as socially distributed and shared processes of intelligent activity embedded in complex social and cultural environments. Networked expertise is relational in nature. It is constituted in interaction between individuals, communities, and larger networks supported by cognitive artifacts, and it coevolves with continuously transforming innovative knowledge communities.

The focus of the book is on analyzing the socio-cognitive foundations of human intelligent activity. The authors examine theories and models that help to understand individual and social aspects of processes of learning, development of expertise, knowledge creation, and innovation. These processes are studied both in the contexts of education and work, and are illuminated with numerous examples, and interview data. The main topics covered are the development of expertise, distributed cognition and shared expertise, collaborative and cultural learning, and inquiry-based and computer-supported learning processes. The basic tenet of the book is that knowledge sharingshould be a core value in all organizations. This is the first step of answering to the challenges of emerging knowledge society.

In "On the Origin of Ideas" various forms of abduction are analyzed as means of conceptualizing processes of discovery. Abductive detective methodology is developed further by emphasizing strategic and processual outlooks, that is, different kinds of processes which both constrain and instigate the search for new ideas. The author proposes that there is a logic in the processes of discovery, although its basis is a weak form of inference, namely, abduction. Abduction was originally presented by C. S. Peirce as a third main mode of inference besides deduction and induction. It is closely related to many kinds of cognitive processes besides reasoning, such as instinct, perception, problem solving and distributed cognition. A distinction between "Harmanian abduction," that is, the Inference to the Best Explanation model, and "Hansonian abduction" as conceptualizing processes of discovery, is made. Critical trends in philosophy of science regarding abduction and discovery are also presented, and a short history of abduction is outlined, both with Peirce's own formulations and later developments. The book is an revised and enlarged version of a dissertation published at 2006.