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The Concept Of Abductive Methodology

Decent Essays

Methodology
The concept of abductive methodology was originally introduced by Aristotle (Jan Svennevig), however it was Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) an American philosopher who developed it into the theory of inference (Jan Svennevig). Charlse Peirce proposed that the traditional modes of inference (induction and deduction) should be harmonized with a third mode (abduction) which he said was qualitatively different from the other two (Jan Svennevig). Fisher considered significance testing as inductive inference. He also argued that this approach (inductive inference) is the source of all knowledge (As cited in Chong Ho Yu, 2005). Meanwhile Neyman was of the view that that only deductive inference was appropriate in statistics as shown in his school of hypothesis testing tradition (As cited in Chong Ho Yu, 2005). Both deductive and inductive methodologies have been criticized for various limits such as their predisposition to explain details that should be better understood, and their incompetence of creating new knowledge (Chong Ho Yu, 2005).
The hypothesis of the Peircean logical system viewed that one may say the logic of abduction and deduction add to our conceptual understanding of a phenomena (Chong Ho Yu, 2005), while the logic of induction provides empirical backing to conceptual knowledge (Chong Ho Yu, 2005). “In other words, abduction, deduction, and induction work together to explore, refine and substantiate research questions” (Chong Ho Yu, 2005). Some

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