BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

ABDUCTION 3)

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The invention of concepts, or logical and mathematical conjectures through the shaping of new hypothesis.

The notion – itself abductive – comes from C.S. PEIRCE, who applied it to new concepts emerging in our mind from witnessing unusual or unprecedented situations in which neither induction nor deduction can be used. J. WARFIELD stresses these differences. According to him, the origin of newly invented concepts remains a mystery. KOESTLER proposed bisociation as a model for this type of creativity, which like all other types is a product of neural and cerebral networks activity.

G. KLIR considers the computer as a valuable instrument in the abduction process, because it makes it easier to look "for regularities and developing thus empirical support for a mathematical conjecture. When the support becomes convincing, it is appropriate to try to prove the conjuncture formally" (1991, p.103).

In fact, abduction precedes induction (and still more so, deduction). Ch S. PEIRCE observed that "induction has its role not in the forming of hypotheses, but (in certain fields) in testing the hypothesis arrived at by abductive inference" (as quoted by P.R. MASANI (1994, P. 45)

MASANI states for example that "statistical inference has to be abductive"(lbid)

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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