On abduction, dualities and reason

We integrate dualistic conceptions of the real with Peirce's perspectives about reality and abduction, emphasizing the concept of reason underlying Peirce's thoughts. Peirce's abduction is related to the notions of retrogression and grounding in Hegel, later re-encountered in Hansonia...

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Main Authors: Hernán Gustavo Solari, Mario Alberto Natiello
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Accademia Piceno Aprutina dei Velati 2023-07-01
Series:Science & Philosophy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eiris.it/ojs/index.php/scienceandphilosophy/article/view/1217
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author Hernán Gustavo Solari
Mario Alberto Natiello
author_facet Hernán Gustavo Solari
Mario Alberto Natiello
author_sort Hernán Gustavo Solari
collection DOAJ
description We integrate dualistic conceptions of the real with Peirce's perspectives about reality and abduction, emphasizing the concept of reason underlying Peirce's thoughts. Peirce's abduction is related to the notions of retrogression and grounding in Hegel, later re-encountered in Hansonian-abduction. Abduction in turn is considered in relation to abstraction acquiring its fullest sense as a stage in the process of producing a theory. The process is iterative and self improving, it incorporates ``turbid thinking'' making it increasingly ``clear'' at successive iterations that incorporate the lessons taught by failed predictions, i.e., refutations. The cycle of thoughts promoted by doubts comes to rest when belief is reached. We discuss how this coming to rest depends on a criterion for cessation of doubts. The observation is illustrated with two different criteria, one proposed by Mach that only demands analogy and the criteria of dualists such as Goethe and Whewell that inspire the present work. Hence, it is possible to produce, and socially accept, imperfect theories unless we demand the highest level of rationality, avoiding any leftover of the turbid thoughts that have been used in the early developments. This work rests upon the existence of some objective form of reason. Influenced by a constructivist, Piagetian, perspective of science, we propose and discuss a small number of conditions that we identify as characteristics of rational abduction: rules for the rational construction of theories. We show how a classical example of belief that satisfies today's most common definition of abduction does not match the standards of rational retroduction. We further show how the same rules indicate the partial detachment of Special Relativity from the observable world, a fact actually known to Einstein. We close arguing that there is an urgent need to develop a critical epistemology incorporating dualistic perspectives.
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spelling doaj.art-ebbc83ffea8f4517b553d6d00867360b2023-07-06T12:55:57ZengAccademia Piceno Aprutina dei VelatiScience & Philosophy2282-77572282-77652023-07-01111316910.23756/sp.v11i1.1217814On abduction, dualities and reasonHernán Gustavo Solari0Mario Alberto Natiello1Depto. de Física, FCEN - UBA Buenos Aires and IFIBA-CONICETCentre for Mathematical Sciences Lund University, LundWe integrate dualistic conceptions of the real with Peirce's perspectives about reality and abduction, emphasizing the concept of reason underlying Peirce's thoughts. Peirce's abduction is related to the notions of retrogression and grounding in Hegel, later re-encountered in Hansonian-abduction. Abduction in turn is considered in relation to abstraction acquiring its fullest sense as a stage in the process of producing a theory. The process is iterative and self improving, it incorporates ``turbid thinking'' making it increasingly ``clear'' at successive iterations that incorporate the lessons taught by failed predictions, i.e., refutations. The cycle of thoughts promoted by doubts comes to rest when belief is reached. We discuss how this coming to rest depends on a criterion for cessation of doubts. The observation is illustrated with two different criteria, one proposed by Mach that only demands analogy and the criteria of dualists such as Goethe and Whewell that inspire the present work. Hence, it is possible to produce, and socially accept, imperfect theories unless we demand the highest level of rationality, avoiding any leftover of the turbid thoughts that have been used in the early developments. This work rests upon the existence of some objective form of reason. Influenced by a constructivist, Piagetian, perspective of science, we propose and discuss a small number of conditions that we identify as characteristics of rational abduction: rules for the rational construction of theories. We show how a classical example of belief that satisfies today's most common definition of abduction does not match the standards of rational retroduction. We further show how the same rules indicate the partial detachment of Special Relativity from the observable world, a fact actually known to Einstein. We close arguing that there is an urgent need to develop a critical epistemology incorporating dualistic perspectives.http://eiris.it/ojs/index.php/scienceandphilosophy/article/view/1217theory buildingrules of reasoningepistemology
spellingShingle Hernán Gustavo Solari
Mario Alberto Natiello
On abduction, dualities and reason
Science & Philosophy
theory building
rules of reasoning
epistemology
title On abduction, dualities and reason
title_full On abduction, dualities and reason
title_fullStr On abduction, dualities and reason
title_full_unstemmed On abduction, dualities and reason
title_short On abduction, dualities and reason
title_sort on abduction dualities and reason
topic theory building
rules of reasoning
epistemology
url http://eiris.it/ojs/index.php/scienceandphilosophy/article/view/1217
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