Simply the best

a case for abduction

pp. 173-194

in: Stathis Psillos, Knowing the structure of nature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

In this chapter I will do two things. First, I shall formulate what I think is the basic problem of any attempt to characterise the abstract structure of scientific method, namely, that it has to satisfy two conflicting desiderata: it should be ampliative (content-increasing) and it should confer epistemic warrant on its outcomes (cf. Gower 1998; Psillos 1999). Second, and after I have examined two extreme solutions to the problem of the method, namely, Enumerative Induction (EI) and the Method of Hypothesis, I will try to show that abduction, suitably understood as inference to the best explanation (IBE), offers the best description of scientific method and solves the foregoing problem in the best way: it strikes the best balance between ampliation and epistemic warrant.