Frederik, lists,

In the famous 'beans' example, Peirce make induction and abduction to be
the obverse of each other.

Note: below I've substituted "Character" for result since "Result" only
works for Deduction. [Indeed, Peirce comments: "But, because all inference
may be reduced in some way to Barbara, it does not follow that this is the
most appropriate form in which to represent every kind of inference. On the
contrary, to show the distinctive characters of different sorts of
inference, they must clearly be exhibited in different forms peculiar to
each. Barbara particularly typifies deductive reasoning; and so long as the
is is taken literally, no inductive reasoning can be put into this
form. *Barbara,
is, in fact, nothing but the application of a rule. The so-called major
premiss lays down this rule; as, for example, All men are mortal. The other
or minor premiss states a case under the rule; as, Enoch was a man. The
conclusion applies the rule to the case and states the result: Enoch is
mortal. All deduction is of this character; it is merely the application of
general rules to particular cases.* (emphasis added, CP 2.630]

DEDUCTION.

Rule.--All the beans from this bag are white.
Case.--These beans are from this bag.
.·.[Character].--These beans are white.

INDUCTION.

Case.--These beans are from this bag.
[Character].--These beans are white.
.·.Rule.--All the beans from this bag are white

HYPOTHESIS.

Rule.--All the beans from this bag are white.
[Character].--These beans are white.
.·.Case.--These beans are from this bag.

I have occasionally argued this obverse relationship of induction to
abduction from the standpoint of categorial vector analysis, associating
1ns with Character, 2ns with Case, 3ns with Rule.

With Induction one begins at 2ns (some, existential case, say, these
particular beans are from *this* bag), moves through 1ns (all of, say, a
large sample of these beans have the character 'white'), arriving at 3ns
(the 'rule' that *probably *all the beans in this bag are white).

Abduction is the obverse. One begins at 3ns, the rule (we know the beans in
this bag to be all white), moves through 1ns (the, perhaps, large number of
beans we find on the table near it are *all *white--note: there may be
other bags with other known mixtures of black and white beans), arriving at
2ns (it is the case that *possibly *all the beans found are from *this*
bag).

Interestingly, as does Abduction, Deduction also begins at 3ns (we know the
beans in this bag to be all white), moves through 2ns, the case (we take a
sampling of the beans from this bag), arriving at 1ns (all of this sample
are *necessarily* white).

So, all three inference patterns either commence or conclude at 3ns, the
Rule.

This may be of mere historical interest, but I thought I'd throw it into
the mix of this quite interesting exchange.

Best,

Gary


[image: Gary Richmond]

*Gary Richmond*
*Philosophy and Critical Thinking*
*Communication Studies*
*LaGuardia College of the City University of New York*
*C 745*
*718 482-5690*

On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 5:38 PM, Frederik Stjernfelt <[email protected]>
wrote:

>  Dear Howard, lists -
> Not a bad description -
> F
>
>  Den 23/04/2015 kl. 15.24 skrev Howard Pattee <[email protected]>:
>
> At 12:57 AM 4/23/2015, Joseph Brenner wrote:
>
> Peirce's 'lumping' of the alleged opposites of induction and abduction is,
> rather the recognition that the opposition between them is not so absolute,
> and indeed they have 'a common feature'. Further, if the criterion for
> judgement is only the effectiveness of the arguments they yield, this is
> not the difference between yes and no. This is my answer to Howard's
> question.
>
>
> Thank you, Joseph, for a very pragmatic answer with which I agree. I still
> prefer to think of induction and abduction as a case of *complementarity* --
> two logically incompatible views, both irreducible one to the other, but
> both necessary in the search for truth..
>
>
>
-----------------------------
PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L 
to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To 
UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the 
line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at 
http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .




Reply via email to