Theorising and practitioners in HRD: the role of abductive reasoning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that abductive reasoning is a typical but usually unrecognised process used by HRD scholars and practitioners alike. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper that explores recent criticism of traditional views of theory-building, based on the privileging of scientific theorising, which has led to a relevance gap between scholars and practitioners. The work of Charles Sanders Peirce and the varieties of an abductive reasoning process are considered. Findings – Abductive reasoning, which precedes induction and deduction, provide a potential connection with HRD practitioners who face difficult problems. Two types of abductive reasoning are explored – existential and analogic. Both offer possibilities for theorising with HRD practitioners. A range of methods for allowing abduction to become more evident with practitioners are presented. The authors consider how abduction can be used in engaged and participative research strategies. Research limitations/implications – While this is a conceptual paper, it does suggest implications for engagement and participation in theorising with HRD practitioners. Practical implications – Abductive reasoning adds to the repertoire of HRD scholars and practitioners. Originality/value – The paper elucidates the value of abductive reasoning and points to how it can become an integral element of theory building in HRD

Technology assessment of advanced automation for space missions

Six general classes of technology requirements derived during the mission definition phase of the study were identified as having maximum importance and urgency, including autonomous world model based information systems, learning and hypothesis formation, natural language and other man-machine communication, space manufacturing, teleoperators and robot systems, and computer science and technology

Space exploration: The interstellar goal and Titan demonstration

Automated interstellar space exploration is reviewed. The Titan demonstration mission is discussed. Remote sensing and automated modeling are considered. Nuclear electric propulsion, main orbiting spacecraft, lander/rover, subsatellites, atmospheric probes, powered air vehicles, and a surface science network comprise mission component concepts. Machine, intelligence in space exploration is discussed

Abduction as a Mode of Inference in Science Education

The central argument of this article is that abduction as a “mode of inference” is a key element in the nature of scientists’ science and should consequently be introduced in school science. Abduction generally understood as generation and selection of hypotheses permits to articulate the classical scientific contexts of discovery and justification and provides educational insights into scientific methodology, this being a particularly important issue in science teaching. However, abductive reasoning has been marginally treated in the philosophy of science until relatively recently; accordingly, we deem it important to perform an “archaeology” of the concept that considers C. S. Peirce’s seminal contributions. We also choose to review contemporary treatments in order to recognise useful classifications to support more meaningful ways of teaching science and the nature of science. An elucidation of the participation of abductive inferences in knowledge construction seems necessary for us to derive conceptual input for the understanding and design of explanations in school science. Some prospective examples of “school scientific abduction” are discussed in the article through the lens of the results of our theoretical analysis.Fil: Aduriz Bravo, Agustin. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Formación e Investigación en Enseñanza de las Ciencias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sans Pinillos, Alger. Universita degli Studi di Pavia; Itali

Johdattelevia huomioita arkeologian spekulatiiviseen tieto-oppiin

In philosophical metaphysics, speculation is often seen to have value as an ontological concept referring to rational contemplation on the fundamental but unobservable nature of reality. In philosophy of science, on the other hand, speculation is commonly taken as an epistemological notion to mean that a proposition regarding the nature of reality can be possibly either true or false, and that the veracity of a proposition can be tested against empirically observed facts. This simplistic division into speculation as a matter of metaphysics and a matter of empirics also pertains to archaeology where speculation, as an ontological concept pertaining to the unobservable, has had little value. Instead, speculation, as well as the ambiguity and uncertainty introduced with it, have been treated as provisional resorts and epistemological points of elimination. In reviewing the history of archaeology in terms of the common views of the form and constituents of archaeological inference, and in drawing philosophical inspiration from a range of speculative philosophies and contemporary archaeological theorising, this thesis argues that the desirable strategy in the epistemology of archaeology is not the systematic elimination of speculation. In contrast, the thesis takes speculation seriously and contends that it has significance in the epistemology of archaeology as both an epistemological and an ontological notion. The thesis holds that in order to develop an empirically sensitive, ontologically considerate, and ethically sustainable epistemology of archaeology, speculation should be cultivated and cared for as a systematic consideration of the multiplicity of experience. In other words, speculation is to be preserved as a method of thinking otherwise; a countermeasure to the methodological (and the ensuing ontological) simplification risked by adhering to the eliminationist strategies. The practical possibilities towards a speculative epistemology of archaeology are discussed in terms of methodological and theoretical deceleration, a matter that has become increasingly relevant with the recent natural scientific revolution in archaeology. Slowing down, in this context, aims towards a historical understanding of the discipline as a community of practitioners with possibly conflicting concerns and objectives. In this way, the principle of speculative epistemology becomes the perpetual anticipation of the possible practical effects of pursuing truths and realities on epistemologies that entertain different understandings of those concepts.Spekulaatiolla on ollut tieteessä yleensä hyvin marginaalinen rooli. Sen merkitys on ollut ennen kaikkea tuottaa tiedollisia ehdotelmia, jotka voidaan erilaisia päättely- tai tulkintamenetelmiä käyttäen osoittaa joko tosiksi tai epätosiksi. Spekulaation on siis ajateltu heikentävän tiedon luotettavuutta. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan spekulaation merkitystä arkeologisen tiedontuottamisprosessin osana. Väitöskirjan tutkimuskysymys on, mikä tiedollinen merkitys spekulaatiolla on arkeologian tietoteoriassa, mikäli käsitettä ei alisteta spekulaation vääjäämättömälle eliminaatiolle. Kysymystä lähestytään väitöskirjassa sekä teoreettis-filosofisena että tieteenhistoriallisena ongelmana. Väitöskirjan tieteenhistoriallisen osuuden ja samalla sen aineiston muodostavat arkeologien luonnehdinnat oman tieteenalansa kannalta luonteenomaisista ja luotettavina pidetyistä päättelymenetelmistä. Väitöskirjassa luodaan katsaus arkeologien teoreettisiin kirjoituksiin 1800-luvun jälkipuoliskolta 2000-luvun alkuun ja osoitetaan, että tieteenalan vakiintuneet teoriat ja menetelmät perustuvat liian ihmiskeskeisille tieto- ja tulkintakäsityksille. Arkeologiassa tällaisia ovat olleet ennen kaikkea tieteenfilosofiasta lainatut päättelymenetelmät ja muodollinen logiikkakäsitys sekä semiotiikasta ja fenomenologiasta lainatut kieli- ja ruumiskeskeiset tulkintateoriat. Väitöskirjan filosofisen ja teoreettisen lähtökohdan muodostaa 2000-luvulla arkeologiassa laajalle levinnyt ajatus, että edellä mainitut ihmiskeskeiset tietoteoriat eli epistemologiat saattavat huomaamattakin alistaa arkeologiset tutkimuskohteet inhimilliselle ajattelulle tyypilliselle järkeistämiselle ja samalla vääristää sellaisia olemassaolon muotoja eli ontologioita, joille esimerkiksi epämääräisyys ja sotkuisuus ovat luonteenomaisia. Väitöskirjan kannalta tärkeä ontologinen ajatus onkin, että tiedontuottamisen tavat eivät vain esitä tutkimuskohteita, vaan myös luovat niitä. Näin spekulaatiosta tulee käsite, jolla on sekä epistemologista että ontologista painoarvoa. Spekulaation käytännöllistä merkitystä lähestytään väitöskirjassa tiedepoliittisena ongelmana. Väitöskirjassa osoitetaan, että mikäli arkeologian tavoitteena on mahdollistaa menneisyyden olemassaolo ja ymmärtäminen mahdollisimman monipuolisilla tavoilla, spekulaation roolia tulee korostaa erilaisia tutkimustavoitteita yhdistävänä tiedollisena ulottuvuutena. Näin spekulaatiosta tulee eettinen käsite ja tapa ennakoida omien tutkimustavoitteiden edistämisen käytännöllisiä vaikutuksia tiedeyhteisöön

Practical Abduction for Research on Human Practices : Enriching Rather Than Testing a Hypothesis

Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.Following C. S. Peirce, abduction is often interpreted as a first phase of inquiry where a hypothesis is formulated requiring testing. I maintain, however, that a natural scientific ideal of testing is not the most suitable model for studies on human practices. Practical experimentation follows a different kind of a logic, and Peirce’s formulations need to be developed further. I interpret abduction in relation to the Deweyan idea of a working hypothesis, and the method of ascending from the abstract to the concrete. Practical abduction is about enriching the working hypothesis instead of “testing” it in a strict sense. In studies on human practices abduction continues throughout the research process.Peer reviewe

Concerning the Epistemology of Design : The Role of the Eco-Cognitive Model of Abduction in Pragmatism

Altres ajuts: the PRIN 2017 Research 20173YP4N3-MIUR, Ministry of University and Research, Rome, ItalyDesign has usually been linked to art and applied in scenarios related to everyday life. Even when design has, on occasion, made its way into the world of academia, it has always been closely linked to art and scenarios related everyday life. At last, however, the idea of design has reached the field of epistemology: an area within the very heart of philosophy that has always focused, in theory, on the foundations of knowledge. Consequently, design is being studied from different approaches interested in the foundation of knowledge, theoretical and practical. This is one of the reasons why abduction and pragmatism have been considered relevant from a design perspective. This paper first shows the main features of abduction and pragmatism, describes their evolution and considers their mutual implications. Second, the epistemology of design is analysed considering its most relevant characteristics. Third, the connection between abduction and, on the one hand, pragmatism and, on the other, design epistemology is addressed. Finally, the role of abductive inference in grounding a real epistemology for design theory from the naturalised cognitive perspective of abduction is outlined. The central proposition is that this approach is essential as a methodological innovation, as it allows us to analyse both the inquiry process and the design process as interdependent when dealing with practical problems of a social and cultural nature. This approach allows us to analyse how human actions determine changes in the theoretical framework from which we make our inquiry. In short, the world is an open-ended project that humans design through our daily inquiry

Design thinking support: information systems versus reasoning

Numerous attempts have been made to conceive and implement appropriate information systems to support architectural designers in their creative design thinking processes. These information systems aim at providing support in very diverse ways: enabling designers to make diverse kinds of visual representations of a design, enabling them to make complex calculations and simulations which take into account numerous relevant parameters in the design context, providing them with loads of information and knowledge from all over the world, and so forth. Notwithstanding the continued efforts to develop these information systems, they still fail to provide essential support in the core creative activities of architectural designers. In order to understand why an appropriately effective support from information systems is so hard to realize, we started to look into the nature of design thinking and on how reasoning processes are at play in this design thinking. This investigation suggests that creative designing rests on a cyclic combination of abductive, deductive and inductive reasoning processes. Because traditional information systems typically target only one of these reasoning processes at a time, this could explain the limited applicability and usefulness of these systems. As research in information technology is increasingly targeting the combination of these reasoning modes, improvements may be within reach for design thinking support by information systems

Modeling as Scientific Reasoning—The Role of Abductive Reasoning for Modeling Competence

While the hypothetico-deductive approach, which includes inductive and deductive reasoning, is largely recognized in scientific reasoning, there is not much focus on abductive reasoning. Abductive reasoning describes the theory-based attempt of explaining a phenomenon by a cause. By integrating abductive reasoning into a framework for modeling competence, we strengthen the idea of modeling being a key practice of science. The framework for modeling competence theoretically describes competence levels structuring the modeling process into model construction and model application. The aim of this theoretical paper is to extend the framework for modeling competence by including abductive reasoning, with impact on the whole modeling process. Abductive reasoning can be understood as knowledge expanding in the process of model construction. In combination with deductive reasoning in model application, such inferences might enrich modeling processes. Abductive reasoning to explain a phenomenon from the best fitting guess is important for model construction and may foster the deduction of hypotheses from the model and further testing them empirically. Recent studies and examples of learners’ performance in modeling processes support abductive reasoning being a part of modeling competence within scientific reasoning. The extended framework can be used for teaching and learning to foster scientific reasoning competences within modeling processes.Peer Reviewe