Abduction in Observational and in Theoretical Sciences. Some Examples of IBE in Palaeontology and in Cosmology

Autor: Andrés Rivadulla Rodríguez
Jazyk: German<br />English<br />Spanish; Castilian<br />French<br />Italian<br />Portuguese
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Revista de Filosofia, Vol 40, Iss 2, Pp 143-152 (2015)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0034-8244
1988-284X
DOI: 10.5209/rev_RESF.2015.v40.n2.50060
Popis: Contrary to the view maintained by many philosophers that science employs the deductive testing of hypotheses, observational natural sciences such as paleoanthropology and the earth sciences apply a scientific methodology consisting in the proposal of hypotheses which are best fitted to the available empirical data, i.e. which best explain the data. Observational natural sciences are predominantly empirical. They are grounded in observation, and they do not implement any Popperian deductive testing of hypotheses. Theoretical natural sciences such as mathematical physics also apply inference to the best explanation for the introduction of significant concepts and hypotheses. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that in contemporary science, the use of abductive reasoning continues to be as effective as ever.
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