The scientific method - Deduction, induction and abduction

8 important questions on The scientific method - Deduction, induction and abduction

What are the three strategies how knowledge can be generated?

Deduction, induction and abduction.

What is the difference between deduction, induction and abduction?

Deduction is top-down, universal (general) to individual (specific). You go from theory to research in a specific group or object. Deduction relies on logic.


Induction works from specific to general.
- We can never be completely certain about general statements
All sciences that take empirical phenomena are inductive sciences.
Induction relies on observation, and never directly leads to hypothesis.

Abduction means creating a hypothesis which can explain certain phenomena, based on existing data, describing two different competing hypthesis and research them.

Which strategies lead to new knowledge?

Induction and abduction
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If you have two models (hypotheses) which is the better one?

According to Ockhams' razor, if we have two explanations for the same phenomenon, we should always choose the simpler of the two, because simpler solutions are more likely to be correct.

In deductive argument conclusions .....

conclusions logically follow from the premises and do not lead to new knowledge.

The lead to new knowledge with induction and abduction

  • lnduction is the finding of a certain regularity or a legality, but does not automatically lead to the finding of certain regularities. An observer is always needed.
  • Abduction involves the establishment of a hypothesis/supposition, which should explain the observed phenomenon.

Why do creative ideas arise by certain people?

What we know is that they only arise with those people who invest enough time to think about a scientific puzzle.

Louis Pasteur said that the fortune of scientific discovery will only accrue to those who have studied a particular subject intensively, sometimes for many years.

What is the difference between context of discovery and context of justification?

In the context of discovery is the situation should explain phenomena.

The context of justification is the situation that should verify or falsify the hypothesis.

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