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“... and therefore in a Remote Sense Abduction Rests upon Diagrammatic Reasoning”
 
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Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
 
 
Publication date: 2018-06-25
 
 
Corresponding author
Michael H. G. Hoffmann   

Associate Professor for Philosophy, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology 685 Cherry Street, N.W. DM Smith Building, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345 +1-404-385-6083 Fax. 404-385-0504
 
 
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2018;14(9):em1585
 
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ABSTRACT
Peirce developed two different concepts—”abduction” and “diagrammatic reasoning”—that are interesting for theories of creativity in mathematics, the sciences, and in learning. He defined “abduction” as the “inference” from surprising, or unexplained, observations to an explanatory hypothesis. However, he does not provide much to explain how the process of creating new hypotheses might be possible. In this contribution, I start from a remark by Peirce claiming that diagrammatic reasoning might somehow be the foundation of abduction. Using an example from astronomy, I argue that at least one form of abduction is indeed based on diagrammatic reasoning: theoretic model abduction.
 
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