Abductive Cognition

This volume explores abductive cognition, an important but, at least until the third quarter of the last century, neglected topic in cognition. The book aims at increasing knowledge about creative and expert inferences. The study of these high-levelmethods of abductive reasoning is situated at the crossroads of philosophy, logic, epistemology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, animal cognition and evolutionary theories; that is, at the heart of cognitive science. Philosophers of science in the twentieth century have traditionally distinguished between the inferential processes active in the logic of discovery and the ones active in the logic of justification. Most have concluded that no logic of creative processes exists and, moreover, that a rational model of discovery is impossible. In short, scientific creative inferences are irrational and there is no “reasoning” to hypotheses. On the other hand, some research in the area of artificial intelligence has shown that methods for discovery could be found that are computationally adequate for rediscovering – or discovering for the first time – empirical or theoretical laws and theorems.

• Cognitive Psychology
• agents
• artificial intelligence
• cognition
• epistemology
• evolution
• knowledge
• complexity

From the reviews:

“Lorenzo Magnani has produced a magnum opus on abduction that brilliantly spans its philosophical, neuropsychological, computational, and ecological dimensions. In this review I will briefly highlight some of the substantial contributions of Abductive Cognition … . anyone interested in mind and society needs to pay attention to abductive cognition. There is no better place to jump off from than Lorenzo Magnani’s new book.” (Paul Thagard, Mind & Society, April, 2010)

“The aim of the monograph series is to record new developments in cognitive systems research. … The appearance of Abductive Cognition is a major event in cognitive science and the philosophy of science. In its reach, complexity and detail, it outpaces everything in the field. In its originality and daring, it is the freshest thing around and a tour de force. It is a book to be reckoned with.” (John Woods, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 2011)

“In Abductive Cognition Magnani pushes further his reflections on abduction … making of this concept as a key for understanding cognition. … To demonstrate the way the concept of abduction can be unfolded … in its many fields of application is the aim of the rest of the book. … Abductive Cognition does an impressive work in sketching some previously unexplored consequences of the concept of abduction in a cognitive framework … and in opening new ways of semiotically investigating cognitive phenomena.” (Riccardo Fusaroli, Versus, 2010)

“Lorenzo Magnani’s new book Abductive Cognition is an important addition … on the nature of abduction. … The book is full of ideas and approaches. … this is an essential reading for all who are interested in abduction, or (distributed) cognition, and especially those who are interested in both of them. Hopefully this is a growing group of people! There is also a large list of references as well as a short vocabulary on abductivecognition at the end of the book.” (Sami Paavola, Journal of General Philosophy of Science, March, 2011)

“Magnani’s book is an ambitious and ecumenical essay on that phenomenon, an attempt to collect and integrate research, old and new, regarding abductive thinking. … The audience of this volume is a readership already interested in the subject and acquainted with the basic issues surrounding it. … this review is to outline the thread of its development for the benefit of a broader audience, and to help readers perceive the overall thrust of the work in the midst of the many details recounted in it.” (Cameron Shelley, Minds and Machines, December, 2011)

• Dipartimento di Filosofia, Universitá di Pavia, Pavia, Italy

  Lorenzo Magnani

Policies and ethics