International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Deduction, induction, and abduction are three basic forms of inference that inform the methodologies of communication research as well as other fields and disciplines. Whereas the most familiar forms are inference from a general principle or law to individual instances (deduction), or from several instances to a law (induction), abduction is an equally important constituent of scholarship, serving to identify possible explanations for a set of observations. Different traditions of communication research can be seen to rely on distinctive variants and combinations of deduction, induction, and abduction. Aristotle had identified abduction as a type of inference; it was reintroduced in modern philosophy by Charles Sanders Peirce in an 1878 article. An inference can be said to consist of three components – a rule which, when applied to a single case, produces a result or conclusion. These components yield three possible combinations (adapted from Peirce 1992 ): DEDUCTION Rule . All the beans from this bag are white. Case . These beans are from this bag. Result . These beans are white. INDUCTION Case . These beans are from this bag. Result . These beans are white. Rule . All the beans from this bag are white. ABDUCTION Result . These beans are white. Rule . All the beans from this bag are white. Case . These beans are from this bag. Strictly speaking, only the deduction is a valid ... log in or subscribe to read full text