Abductive reasoning

About: Abductive reasoning is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1917 publications have been published within this topic receiving 44645 citations. The topic is also known as: abduction & abductive inference.

Decision-making in Design: A Comparative Study

Abstract: This paper presents a comparative study of the design processes of nal-year industrial design students of 2 countries while conducting an individual design task. This task was identical for both groups making this comparison possible even though the studies are 15 years apart. This new study gave us opportunity to observe new aspects initially not focused upon. The operational aims of this study are the identi cation and comparison of the way senior design students in both groups take decisions, the relation with design moves along the process, and the factors in uencing the decisions and moves.For that purpose both verbal protocol analysis studies (VPA) were analyzed on the basis of activities and decision-making moments described in terms of reasons behind it and goals intended to be achieved through it.The results indicate the relevance of two aspects: a) the abductive reasoning that supports designing gains visibility through analysis based upon decision-making; where idea generation plays a key role. b) the notion of design as a decision-making process could bridge, in a meaningful way, design education and design practice in organizations

The Vagueness of the Muse—The Logic of Peirce’s Humble Argument for the Reality of God

Abstract: Published in 1908, C.S. Peirce’s ‘A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God’ is one of his most difficult articles. Presenting a peculiar entanglement of scientific method and theology, it sketches a ‘humble’ argument for the reality—and not the existence—of God for Musers, that is, those who pursue the activity he calls ‘Musement’. In Musement, Peirce claims, we can achieve a kind of perception of the intertwinement of the three universes of experience: of feeling, of brute fact, and of reason. He also somehow relates each universe to a distinct phase of inquiry, which is described by the use of induction, deduction, and abduction or retroduction. The way that he develops his claims allows him to outline God as an abductive vague hypothesis to explain how those three universes make up a single whole. The hypothesis being vague means that the principle of contradiction does not hold for it. In this presentation, we aim at throwing some light at these points, focusing on the concept of Musement and what is understood as the vagueness of the hypothesis.

La competenza progettuale dell’insegnante. Esplicitazione della componente abduttiva

Abstract: The paper aims at offering a description of the teacher design analysing the abductive component After a brief presentation of the design competence, from the descriptive point of view and taken from the literature, the work focuses the attention on the underlying processes, in reference to the ‘Purpose-Variables-Path’ model (F-V-P) Starting from the original definition of ChS Peirce and with the support of examples taken from the educational field, the abductive inference - typical of the initial design phase - is analyzed in its internal dynamic On the basis of the adduced arguments, the paper ends underlining the need to elaborate epistemic tools able to explain the ‘complex’ competences, as the design one