 |
|
| A PRACTICAL LOGIC OF COGNITIVE SYSTEMS, 2
| |
| | |
|
|
The Reach of Abduction: Insight and Trial
To order this title, and for more information, click here
By
Dov M. Gabbay, King's College London, UK
John Woods, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Description
The present work is a continuation of the authors' acclaimed multi-volume A
Practical Logic of Cognitive Systems. After having investigated
the notion of
relevance in their previous volume, Gabbay and Woods now turn to abduction. In
this highly original approach, abduction
is construed as ignorance-preserving
inference, in which conjecture plays a pivotal role. Abduction is a response to a
cognitive target
that cannot be hit on the basis of what the agent currently knows.
The abducer selects a hypothesis which were it true would enable the
reasoner to attain his target. He concludes from this fact that the hypothesis may be conjectured. In allowing conjecture to stand in
for the knowledge he fails to have, the abducer reveals himself to be a satisficer, since an abductive solution is not a solution from
knowledge. Key to the authors' analysis is the requirement that a conjectured proposition is not just what a reasoner might allow himself
to assume, but a proposition he must defeasibly release as a premiss for further inferences in the domain of enquiry in which the original
abduction problem has arisen.
The coverage of the book is extensive, from the philosophy of science to
computer science and AI, from
diagnostics to the law, from historical explanation to linguistic interpretation. One of the volume's strongest contributions is its
exploration of the abductive character of criminal trials, with special attention given to the standard of proof beyond a reasonable
doubt.
Underlying their analysis of abductive reasoning is the authors' conception of
practical agency. In this approach, practical
agency is dominantly a matter of the
comparative modesty of an agent's cognitive agendas, together with comparatively scant resources
available for their advancement. Seen in these ways, abduction has a significantly practical character, precisely because it is a form
of inference that satisfices rather than maximizes its response to the agent's cognitive target.
The Reach of Abduction will be necessary
reading for researchers, graduate
students and senior undergraduates in logic, computer science, AI, belief dynamics, argumentation theory,
cognitive psychology and neuroscience, linguistics, forensic science, legal reasoning and related areas.
Key features:
- Reach
of Abduction is fully integrated with a background logic of cognitive systems.
- The most extensive coverage compared to competitive
works.
- Demonstrates not only that abduction is a form of ignorance preserving
inference but that it is a mode of inference that
is wholly rational.
- Demonstrates the satisficing rather than maximizing character of
abduction.
- The development of formal
models of abduction is considerably more extensive than one finds in existing literature. It is an especially impressive amalgam of sophisticated
conceptual analysis and extensive logical modelling.
Audience
For researchers, graduate students and senior undergraduates in logic, computer science, AI, belief dynamics, argumentation theory, cognitive
psychology and neuroscience, linguistics, forensic science, legal reasoning and related areas.
Contents
Acknowledgements.
Preface.
A Practical Logic of Cognitive Systems
1. Introduction
2. Practical Logic
Conceptual Models of Abduction
3. The Structure of Abduction
4. Explanationist Abduction
5. Non-Plausibilistic Abduction
6. Diagnostic Abduction in AI
7. The Characteristic
and the Plausible
8. Relevance and Analogy
9. Interpretation Abduction
Formal Models of Abduction
10. A Glimpse of Formality
11.
A General Theory of Logical Systems
12. A Base Logic
13. An Abductive Mechanism for the Base Logic
Bibliography.
Index .
| Bibliographic details |
Hardbound, 496 pages, publication date: MAY-2005
ISBN-13: 978-0-444-51791-3
ISBN-10: 0-444-51791-X
Imprint: ELSEVIER
|
| Price and Ordering |
Price:
USD 200
GBP 127
EUR 149.95
|  |
Books and book related electronic products are priced in US dollars (USD), euro (EUR), and Great Britain Pounds (GBP). USD prices apply to the Americas and Asia Pacific. EUR prices apply in Europe and the Middle East. GBP prices apply to the UK and all other countries.
|
See also information about conditions of sale & ordering procedures, and links to our regional sales offices.
|
050/500
Last update: 5 Sep 2009
|
|
| |
| | |
|
|
| |
Home | Elsevier Sites | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Feedback | Site Map | A Reed Elsevier Company