Nature Chose Abduction: Support from Brain Research for Lipton’s Theory of Inference to the Best Explanation

• Published in: Foundations of science 2022-12, Vol.27 (4), p.1489-1505
• Main Author: Seddon, Peter B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Book publishing; Brain; Brain research; Education; Evolution; Inference; Mathematical Logic and Foundations; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Nervous system; Neurosciences; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Psychology; Scientists
• ISSN: 1233-1821; 1572-8471
• DOI: 10.1007/s10699-021-09811-3

This paper presents arguments and evidence from psychology and neuroscience supporting Lipton’s 2004 claim that scientists create knowledge through an abductive process that he calls “Inference to the Best Explanation”. The paper develops two conclusions. Conclusion 1 is that without conscious effort on our part, our brains use a process very similar to abduction as a powerful way of interpreting sensory information. To support Conclusion 1, evidence from psychology and neuroscience is presented that suggests that what we humans perceive through our senses is not reality, but rather, our ‘brain’s “best guess” of the causes of its sensory input. The implication of this best guessing is that our brains use a process very similar to abduction throughout our lives to inform us of what is happening in the world around us. In addition, an argument based on Darwinian evolution is presented claiming that our brains do an excellent job of interpreting sensory information from the outside world. (If they did not, we, as a species, could hardly have survived.) Combining these two claims leads to Conclusion 1. Building on Conclusion 1, Conclusion 2 is that Lipton and others are correct in claiming that scientists use abduction when creating scientific theories. Abduction must be strong, because Nature chose abduction for its own sensemaking purposes. This paper’s contribution to knowledge is in pointing out that recent psychological and neuroscientific research has major implications for the philosophical world’s confidence in the probable validity of abductive inference. The punchline is simple: Nature chose abduction!