Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

185699

How to build new hypotheses

Lorenzo Magnani

pp. 261-284

Abstract

The process of building new hypotheses can be clarified by the eco-cognitive model (EC-Model) of abduction I have recently introduced. I will take advantage of three examples: (1) a new interpretation of Aristotle's seminal work on abduction, which stresses the need, to build creative and selective abductive hypotheses, of a situation of eco-cognitive openness, (2) a philosophical example of building new hypotheses, in the case of phenomenology, in which we can take advantage of an abductive interpretation of the concept of adumbration and anticipation, and (3) the abductive discovery in geometry, which illustrates in both a semiotic and distributed perspective, crucial aspects of what I have called manipulative abduction. The first example will also help us to introduce the concept of optimization of the eco-cognitive situatedness as one of the main characters of the abductive inferences to new hypotheses. Thanks to these examples we can gain a new vivid perspective on the "constitutive" eco-cognitive character of building hypotheses through abduction.

Publication details

Published in:

Danks David, Ippoliti Emiliano (2018) Building theories: heuristics and hypotheses in sciences. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 261-284

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-72787-5_13

Full citation:

Magnani Lorenzo (2018) „How to build new hypotheses“, In: D. Danks & E. Ippoliti (eds.), Building theories, Dordrecht, Springer, 261–284.