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European Journal of Social Theory
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The Elementary Forms of Pragmatism

On Different Types of Abduction

Thora Margareta Bertilsson

University of Copenhagen, Denmark, margareta.bertilsson{at}sociology.ku.dk

Among the classical pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce is often regarded as the most removed from practical affairs; he is seen as the most ‘scientific’. The aim of this article is to show his practical usefulness in daily affairs in determining that ‘which is the case’. The abductive inference had a pivotal role in his pragmatist theory of inquiry. As Umberto Eco has shown, abduction is as equally central in the writing of detective stories as it is in the making of science. Recently, abduction has gained a renewed interest not only in the idea that science is basically ‘conjectural’ (Ginzburg and Popper), but also in different versions of critical realism. Here abduction gains interest as a ‘theoretical inference’ of special concern for the social sciences. An overview of various usages of abduction, from Eco to Bhaskar, is followed by a critical pragmatist assessment.

Key Words: abduction • critical realism • Umberto Eco • Charles S. Peirce • pragmatism

European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 7, No. 3, 371-389 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1368431004044199
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