Reasoning from Paradigms and Negative Evidence
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Complexity Classifications for Propositional Abduction in Post's
Complexity Classifications for Propositional Abduction in Post’s Framework∗ Nadia Creignou1, Johannes Schmidt1, Michael Thomas2 1 LIF, UMR CNRS 6166, Aix-Marseille Universit´e 163, Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France [email protected] [email protected] 2 Institut f¨ur Theoretische Informatik, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universit¨at Appelstr. 4, 30167 Hannover, Germany [email protected] Abstract. In this paper we investigate the complexity of abduction, a fundamental and important form of non-monotonic reasoning. Given a knowledge base explaining the world’s behavior it aims at finding an explanation for some observed manifestation. In this paper we consider propositional abduction, where the knowledge base and the manifesta- tion are represented by propositional formulae. The problem of deciding p whether there exists an explanation has been shown to be Σ2 -complete in general. We focus on formulae in which the allowed connectives are taken from certain sets of Boolean functions. We consider different vari- ants of the abduction problem in restricting both the manifestations and the hypotheses. For all these variants we obtain a complexity classifica- tion for all possible sets of Boolean functions. In this way, we identify easier cases, namely NP-complete, coNP-complete and polynomial cases. Thus, we get a detailed picture of the complexity of the propositional abduction problem, hence highlighting sources of intractability. Further, we address the problem of counting the explanations and draw a com- plete picture for the counting complexity. Keywords: abduction, computational complexity, Post’s lattice, propo- sitional logic, boolean connective arXiv:1006.4923v1 [cs.CC] 25 Jun 2010 ∗ Supported by ANR Algorithms and complexity 07-BLAN-0327-04 and DFG grant VO 630/6-1. -
Abduction, Reason, and Science Abduction, Reason, and Science Processes of Discovery and Explanation
Abduction, Reason, and Science Abduction, Reason, and Science Processes of Discovery and Explanation Lorenzo Magnani University of Pavia Pavia, Italy, and Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Magnani, Lorenzo Abduction, reason, and ,cience: processes of discovcry and explanation/Lorenzo Magnani. p. cm. IncIudes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4613-4637-1 ISBN 978-1-4419-8562-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-8562-0 1. Science-Philosophy. 2. Abduction (Logic). 3. Discoveries in science. I. Tirle. Q175.32.A24 M34 2001 501-dc21 00-052061 Front cover: Descartes's explanation of the rainbow (from his Meteora, 1656). ISBN 978-1-4613-4637-1 © 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York in 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 http://www.wkap.nl/ 1098765432 A c.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. AII rights reserved No par! of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without wrilten permis sion from the Publisher To my daughter Giovanna Science does not rest upon solid bedrock. The bold structure of its theories rises, as it were, above a swamp. It is like a building erected on piles. The piles are driven down from above into the swamp, but not down to any natural or "given" base; and if we stop driving the piles deeper, it is not because we have reached firm ground. -
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, X-1 | 2018 Eco and Peirce on Abduction 2
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy X-1 | 2018 Eco and Pragmatism Eco and Peirce on Abduction Francesco Bellucci Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ejpap/1122 DOI: 10.4000/ejpap.1122 ISSN: 2036-4091 Publisher Associazione Pragma Electronic reference Francesco Bellucci, « Eco and Peirce on Abduction », European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy [Online], X-1 | 2018, Online since 20 July 2018, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/ejpap/1122 ; DOI : 10.4000/ejpap.1122 This text was automatically generated on 19 April 2019. Licence Creative Commons Author retains copyright and grants the European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Eco and Peirce on Abduction 1 Eco and Peirce on Abduction Francesco Bellucci 1 One of the key concepts that Eco took from Peirce is that of “abduction,” or reasoning to an explanatory hypothesis. This concept is central to his foundation of a semiotic or interpretative semantics, one of whose component is a theory of inference, and especially of abductive inference. Though there is probably only one “official” place where Eco expounds his theory of abductive reasoning – the article “Horns, Hooves, and Insteps” in The Sign of Three – yet Eco’s theory is spanned over tens of papers and books, including his fictional books. 2 Eco’s fictional books have often been considered as, to say the least, “profoundly connected” with his scholarly work. But Paolucci has persuasively argued that not only Eco’s philosophical work influenced his fictional work, but also, and more crucially, that his fictional works are an integral part of his philosophy: “[t]he union of the theoretical and nontheoretical works constitute Eco’s philosophical legacy, his ‘philosophy’.” (Paolucci 2017a: 254). -
Abductive Reasoning: Challenges Ahead
Abductive Reasoning: Challenges Ahead Atocha ALISEDA BIBLID [0495-4548 (2007) 22: 60; pp. 261-270] ABSTRACT: The motivation behind the collection of papers presented in this THEORIA forum on Abductive reasoning is my book Abductive Reasoning: Logical Investigations into the Processes of Discovery and Explanation. These contributions raise fundamental questions. One of them concerns the conjectural character of abduction. The choice of a logical framework for abduction is also discussed in detail, both its inferential aspect and search strategies. Abduction is also analyzed as inference to the best explanation, as well as a process of epistemic change, both of which chal- lenge the argument-like format of abduction. Finally, the psychological question of whether humans reason abduc- tively according to the models proposed is also addressed. I offer a brief summary of my book and then comment on and respond to several challenges that were posed to my work by the contributors to this issue. Keywords: abduction, abductive inference, discovery, heuristics. A Summary In Abductive Reasoning: Logical Investigations into Discovery and Explanation, I offer a logical analysis of a particular type of scientific reasoning, namely abduction, that is, reasoning from an observation to its possible explanations. This approach naturally leads to connec- tions with theories of explanation and empirical progress in the philosophy of science, to computationally oriented theories of belief change in artificial intelligence, and to the phi- losophical position known as Pragmatism, proposed by Charles Peirce, to whom the term abduction owes its name. More precisely, the book is divided into three parts: (I) Conceptual Framework, (II) Logical Foundations, and (III) Applications, each of which is briefly described in what follows. -
Theistic Critiques of Atheism William Lane Craig Used by Permission of in the Cambridge Companion to Atheism, Pp
Theistic Critiques Of Atheism William Lane Craig Used by permission of In The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, pp. 69-85. Ed. M. Martin. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 2007. SUMMARY An account of the resurgence of philosophical theism in our time, including a brief survey of prominent anti-theistic arguments such as the presumption of atheism, the incoherence of theism, and the problem of evil, along with a defense of theistic arguments like the contingency argument, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and the moral argument. THEISTIC CRITIQUES OF ATHEISM Introduction The last half-century has witnessed a veritable revolution in Anglo-American philosophy. In a recent retrospective, the eminent Princeton philosopher Paul Benacerraf recalls what it was like doing philosophy at Princeton during the 1950s and '60s. The overwhelmingly dominant mode of thinking was scientific naturalism. Metaphysics had been vanquished, expelled from philosophy like an unclean leper. Any problem that could not be addressed by science was simply dismissed as a pseudo-problem. Verificationism reigned triumphantly over the emerging science of philosophy. "This new enlightenment would put the old metaphysical views and attitudes to rest and replace them with the new mode of doing philosophy." [1] The collapse of the Verificationism was undoubtedly the most important philosophical event of the twentieth century. Its demise meant a resurgence of metaphysics, along with other traditional problems of philosophy which Verificationism had suppressed. Accompanying this resurgence has come something new and altogether unanticipated: a renaissance in Christian philosophy. The face of Anglo-American philosophy has been transformed as a result. -
Abductive Reasoning in Multiple Fault Diagnosis
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarlyCommons@Penn University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Technical Reports (CIS) Department of Computer & Information Science June 1988 Abductive Reasoning in Multiple Fault Diagnosis Timothy Finin Unisys, Inc. Gary Morris Internal Revenue Service Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cis_reports Recommended Citation Timothy Finin and Gary Morris, "Abductive Reasoning in Multiple Fault Diagnosis", . June 1988. University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MS-CIS-88-61. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/cis_reports/693 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abductive Reasoning in Multiple Fault Diagnosis Abstract Abductive reasoning involves generating an explanation for a given set of observations about the world. Abduction provides a good reasoning framework for many AI problems, including diagnosis, plan recognition and learning. This paper focuses on the use of abductive reasoning in diagnostic systems in which there may be more than one underlying cause for the observed symptoms. In exploring this topic, we will review and compare several different approaches, including Binary Choice Bayesian, Sequential Bayesian, Causal Model Based Abduction, Parsimonious Set Covering, and the use of First Order Logic. Throughout the paper we will use as an example a simple diagnostic problem involving automotive -
Charles Sanders Peirce and Karl Popper
A Brief History of Scientific Thoughts Lecture 4 Palash Sarkar Applied Statistics Unit Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata India [email protected] Palash Sarkar (ISI, Kolkata) Thoughts on Science 1 / 20 David Hume (1711–1776) on Induction Deduction cannot justify rules for induction. Circularity: The principles for induction are justified by induction. So, induction cannot be justified. No certainty that the future will resemble the past. Inductive reasoning cannot conclusively establish that the Sun will continue to rise in the East. Practical skepticism: we have to rely on induction even if it cannot be justified. Palash Sarkar (ISI, Kolkata) Thoughts on Science 2 / 20 John Stuart Mill on Induction Mathematical truths are highly confirmed generalisations from experience. Knowledge of any kind is not from direct experience, but, an inductive experience from direct experience. An extreme position on the “competitive” roles of inductive and deductive inferences. Syllogistic logic adds nothing to our knowledge. Its rules merely reflect our determination to reason consistently with the ways in which we have reasoned in the past. All ampliative (i.e., which increase knowledge) inferences are inductive. Palash Sarkar (ISI, Kolkata) Thoughts on Science 3 / 20 Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce Contributions. Abductive reasoning (as a logic of pragmatism). Placed inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning in a complementary rather than competitive mode. Doctrine of fallibilism. Approach to the scientific method. The objects of knowledge are real things. The properties of real things do not depend on our perceptions of them. Everyone who has sufficient experience of real things will agree on the truth about them. -
Modeling As Scientific Reasoning—The Role of Abductive
education sciences Article Modeling as Scientific Reasoning—The Role of Abductive Reasoning for Modeling Competence Annette Upmeier zu Belzen 1,* , Paul Engelschalt 1 and Dirk Krüger 2 1 Biology Education, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany; [email protected] 2 Biology Education, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: While the hypothetico-deductive approach, which includes inductive and deductive rea- soning, is largely recognized in scientific reasoning, there is not much focus on abductive reasoning. Abductive reasoning describes the theory-based attempt of explaining a phenomenon by a cause. By integrating abductive reasoning into a framework for modeling competence, we strengthen the idea of modeling being a key practice of science. The framework for modeling competence theoret- ically describes competence levels structuring the modeling process into model construction and model application. The aim of this theoretical paper is to extend the framework for modeling com- petence by including abductive reasoning, with impact on the whole modeling process. Abductive reasoning can be understood as knowledge expanding in the process of model construction. In com- bination with deductive reasoning in model application, such inferences might enrich modeling processes. Abductive reasoning to explain a phenomenon from the best fitting guess is important for model construction and may foster the deduction of hypotheses from the model and further testing them empirically. Recent studies and examples of learners’ performance in modeling processes support abductive reasoning being a part of modeling competence within scientific reasoning. The ex- Citation: Upmeier zu Belzen, A.; tended framework can be used for teaching and learning to foster scientific reasoning competences Engelschalt, P.; Krüger, D. -
Abductive Reasoning As a Way of Worldmaking
Foundations of Science, special issue on "The Impact of Radical Constructivism on Science", edited by A. Riegler, 2001, vol. 6, no.4: 361–383. Abductive Reasoning as a Way of Worldmaking Hans Rudi Fischer Heidelberger Institut für systemische Forschung und Therapie Kussmaulstr. 10 D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany The Gods have certainty, whereas to us as men conjecture [only is possible]..” Alcmaion von Kroton (Diels /Kranz, Vol. I,p. 214) "...the true method of philosophical construction is to frame a scheme of ideas , the best that one can, and unflinchingly to explore the interpretation of experience in terms of that scheme." (Alfred North Whitehead 1978, p.xiv) "...man's truth is never absolute because the basis of fact is hypothesis." (Ch. S. Peirce, Writings vol. I, p. 7.) Abstract The author deals with the operational core of logic, i.e. its diverse procedures of inference, in order to show that logically false inferences may in fact be right because - in contrast to logical rationality - they actually enlarge our knowledge of the world. This does not only mean that logically true inferences say nothing about the world, but also that all our inferences are invented hypotheses the adequacy of which cannot be proved within logic but only pragmatically. In conclusion the author demonstrates, through the relationship between rule-following and rationality, that it is most irrational to want to exclude the irrational: it may, at times, be most rational to think and infer irrationally. Focussing on the operational aspects of knowing as inferring does away with the hiatus between logic and life, cognition and the world (reality) - or whatever other dualism one wants to invoke -: knowing means inferring, inferring means rule-governed interpreting, interpreting is a constructive, synthetic act, and a construction that proves adequate (viable) in the “world of experience”, in life, in the praxis of living, is, to the constructivist mind, knowledge. -
The Epistemology of Science: Acceptance, Explanation, and Realism
THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF SCIENCE: ACCEPTANCE,EXPLANATION, AND REALISM Finnur Dellsen´ A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2014 Approved by: Marc B. Lange John T. Roberts Matthew Kotzen Ram Neta William G. Lycan c 2014 Finnur Dellsen´ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT FINNUR DELLSEN:´ The Epistemology of Science: Acceptance, Explanation, and Realism. (Under the direction of Marc B. Lange) Natural science tells a story about what the world is like. But what kind of story is this supposed to be? On a popular (realist) view, this story is meant to provide the best possible explanations of the aspects of the world with which we are all acquainted. A realist also thinks that the story should in some sense provide explanations that are probable in light of our evidence, and that these explanations ought to fit together into a coherent whole. These requirements turn out to be surprisingly hard to satisfy given the received view of how scientific theories are evaluated. However, I argue that if scientific theories are eval- uated comparatively rather than absolutely for explanatory purposes – optimifically rather than satisficingly – then we can provide a fully realist view of the connections between explanation, probability, and coherence. It is one thing to say what science’s story of the world ought ideally be like, it is another to say that the story as it is actually being told lives up to this ideal. -
Reasons Against Belief: a Theory of Epistemic Defeat
REASONS AGAINST BELIEF: A THEORY OF EPISTEMIC DEFEAT by Timothy D. Loughlin A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: Philosophy Under the Supervision of Professor Albert Casullo Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2015 REASONS AGAINST BELIEF: A THEORY OF EPISTEMIC DEFEAT Timothy D. Loughlin, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2015 Adviser: Albert Casullo Despite its central role in our cognitive lives, rational belief revision has received relatively little attention from epistemologists. This dissertation begins to fill that absence. In particular, we explore the phenomenon of defeasible epistemic justification, i.e., justification that can be lost as well as gained by epistemic agents. We begin by considering extant theories of defeat, according to which defeaters are whatever cause a loss of justification or things that somehow neutralize one's reasons for belief. Both of these theories are both extensionally and explanatorily inadequate and, so, are rejected. We proceed to develop a novel theory of defeat according to which defeaters are reasons against belief. According to this theory, the dynamics of justification are explained by the competition between reasons for and reasons against belief. We find that this theory not only handles the counter-examples that felled the previous theories but also does a fair job in explaining the various aspects of the phenomenon of defeat. Furthermore, this theory accomplishes this without positing any novel entities or mechanisms; according to this theory, defeaters are epistemic reasons against belief, the mirror image of our epistemic reasons for belief, rather than sui generis entities. -
Abductive Reasoning in Mathematics Education: Approaches to and Theorisations of a Complex Idea
EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2018, 14(9), em1584 ISSN:1305-8223 (online) OPEN ACCESS Research Paper https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/92552 Abductive Reasoning in Mathematics Education: Approaches to and Theorisations of a Complex Idea David A Reid 1* 1 University of Bremen, GERMANY Received 28 March 2018 ▪ Revised 18 May 2018 ▪ Accepted 25 May 2018 ABSTRACT There is a growing literature on the importance of abductive reasoning in mathematics education. However, there are some important variations in what exactly is referred to as ‘abductive reasoning’. This article identifies key theorisations of abductive reasoning in the work of Peirce, Habermas and Eco, as well as describing different approaches to abductive reasoning found the mathematics education literature. A framework in which the different approaches taken in the research literature can be placed and compared is proposed. Keywords: abductive reasoning, conjecturing, function of reasoning, logical form, proof and proving INTRODUCTION There is a growing literature on the importance of abductive reasoning in mathematics education (e.g., Cifarelli, 1999; Krummheuer, 2007; Pedemonte, 2007; Pedemonte & Reid 2011; Rivera & Becker, 2007; Weber, Maher, Powell, & Lee, 2008). However, there are some important variations in what exactly is referred to as ‘abductive reasoning’. This chapter will explore the origins of the concept of abductive reasoning, identify the most significant approaches in mathematics education literature that refers to abductive reasoning, and propose a framework in which the different approaches taken in the research literature can be placed and compared. THEORISATIONS OF ABDUCTIVE REASONING The current usages of the words “abduction” and “abductive” (in logic) are due to Charles Saunders Peirce.