Editing Abductive reasoning (section)

==Applications==

=== Artificial intelligence ===
Applications in [[artificial intelligence]] include [[Diagnosis (artificial intelligence)|fault diagnosis]], [[belief revision]], and [[automated planning]]. The most direct application of abduction is that of automatically detecting faults in systems: given a theory relating faults with their effects and a set of observed effects, abduction can be used to derive sets of faults that are likely to be the cause of the problem.<ref name="Josephson, Magnani"/>

=== Medicine ===
In [[medicine]], abduction can be seen as a component of clinical evaluation and judgment.<ref name="Rapezzi2005">{{cite journal|last=Rapezzi|first=C|author2=Ferrari, R|author3= Branzi, A|title=White coats and fingerprints: diagnostic reasoning in medicine and investigative methods of fictional detectives|journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.)|date=24 December 2005| volume=331| issue=7531| pages=1491–4| pmid=16373725|pmc=1322237| doi=10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1491}}</ref><ref name="Rejon2012">{{cite journal|last=Rejón Altable|first=C|title=Logic structure of clinical judgment and its relation to medical and psychiatric semiology| journal=Psychopathology|date=October 2012| volume=45| issue=6| pages=344–51| pmid=22854297| url=http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/337968| access-date=17 January 2014| doi=10.1159/000337968| doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Internist-I]] diagnostic system, the first [[AI]] system that covered the field of Internal Medicine, used abductive reasoning to converge on the most likely causes of a set of patient symptoms that it acquired through an interactive dialog with an expert user.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pople |first1=Harry E. |editor1-last=Szolovits |editor1-first=Peter |title=Artificial Intelligence In Medicine |date=1982 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429052071-5/heuristic-methods-imposing-structure-iii-structured-problems-structuring-medical-diagnostics-harry-pople |chapter=Heuristic Methods for Imposing Structure on Ill-Structured Problems: The Structuring of Medical Diagnostics|pages=119–190 |doi=10.4324/9780429052071-5 |isbn=978-0-429-05207-1 }}</ref>

=== Automated planning ===
Abduction can also be used to model [[automated planning]].<ref>Kave Eshghi. Abductive planning with the event calculus. In Robert A. Kowalski, Kenneth A. Bowen editors: Logic Programming, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference and Symposium, Seattle, Washington, August 15–19, 1988. MIT Press 1988, {{ISBN|0-262-61056-6}}</ref> Given a logical theory relating action occurrences with their effects (for example, a formula of the [[event calculus]]), the problem of finding a plan for reaching a state can be modeled as the problem of abducting a set of literals implying that the final state is the goal state.

=== Intelligence analysis ===
In [[intelligence analysis]], [[analysis of competing hypotheses]] and [[Bayesian network]]s, probabilistic abductive reasoning is used extensively. Similarly in [[medical diagnosis]] and legal reasoning, the same methods are being used, although there have been many examples of errors, especially caused by the [[base rate fallacy]] and the [[prosecutor's fallacy]].

=== Belief revision ===
{{Unreferenced section|small=y|date=January 2019}}
[[Belief revision]], the process of adapting beliefs in view of new information, is another field in which abduction has been applied. The main problem of belief revision is that the new information may be inconsistent with the prior [[web of belief]]s, while the result of the incorporation cannot be inconsistent. The process of updating the web of beliefs can be done by the use of abduction: once an explanation for the observation has been found, integrating it does not generate inconsistency.

Gärdenfors’ paper<ref name="Gärdenfors ">Gärdenfors, Peter. "Belief revision: A vade-mecum." Meta-Programming in Logic: Third International Workshop, META-92 Uppsala, Sweden, June 10–12, 1992 Proceedings 3. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1992.</ref> contains a brief survey of the area of belief revision and its relation to updating of logical databases, and explores the relationship between belief revision and nonmonotonic logic.

This use of abduction is not straightforward, as adding [[propositional formula]]e to other propositional formulae can only make inconsistencies worse. Instead, abduction is done at the level of the ordering of preference of the [[possible world]]s. Preference models use [[fuzzy logic]] or [[utility models]].

=== Philosophy of science ===
In the [[philosophy of science]], abduction has been the key inference method to support [[scientific realism]], and much of the debate about scientific realism is focused on whether abduction is an acceptable method of inference.<ref>Lipton, Peter. (2001). Inference to the Best Explanation, London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-24202-9}}.</ref>

=== Historical linguistics ===
In [[historical linguistics]], abduction during language acquisition is often taken to be an essential part of processes of [[language change]] such as reanalysis and [[analogy]].<ref>April M. S. McMahon (1994): Understanding language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-44665-1}}</ref>

=== Applied linguistics ===
In [[applied linguistics]] research, abductive reasoning is starting to be used as an alternative explanation to inductive reasoning, in recognition of anticipated outcomes of qualitative inquiry playing a role in shaping the direction of analysis. It is defined as "The use of an unclear premise based on observations, pursuing theories to try to explain it" (Rose et al., 2020, p.&nbsp;258)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rose, McKinley, & Briggs Baffoe-Djan |title=Data Collection Research Methods in Applied Linguistics |date=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=9781350025851}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=McKinley |first1=J |editor1-last=McKinley & Rose |title=The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in Applied Linguistics |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=9780367824471 |pages=1–13 |chapter-url=https://www.englishappliedlinguistics.com/uploads/2/4/1/9/2419477/mckinley__2020__theorizing_applied_linguistics_research.pdf |chapter=Introduction: Theorizing research methods in the 'golden age' of applied linguistics research |date=2019-12-06 |access-date=2020-02-15 |archive-date=2020-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215113328/https://www.englishappliedlinguistics.com/uploads/2/4/1/9/2419477/mckinley__2020__theorizing_applied_linguistics_research.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Anthropology ===
In [[anthropology]], [[Alfred Gell]] in his influential book ''Art and Agency'' defined abduction (after Eco<ref>{{cite book|last=Eco |first= Umberto |date=1976|title =A Theory of Semiotics|publisher = Indiana University Press|page= 131|isbn =9780253359551|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BoXO4ItsuaMC&pg=PA131}}</ref>) as "a case of synthetic inference 'where we find some very curious circumstances, which would be explained by the supposition that it was a case of some general rule, and thereupon adopt that supposition{{'"}}.<ref name="Gell, A 1984, p 14">{{cite book|last=Gell|first= A.|date = 1998|title = Art and Agency|location = Oxford |publisher = Clarendon Press|page =14|isbn = 9780191037450}}</ref> Gell criticizes existing "anthropological" studies of art for being too preoccupied with aesthetic value and not preoccupied enough with the central anthropological concern of uncovering "social relationships", specifically the social contexts in which artworks are produced, circulated, and received.<ref>Bowden, R. (2004) A critique of Alfred Gell on Art and Agency. Retrieved Sept 2007 from: {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050327073225/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3654/is_200406/ai_n9453295 Find Articles at BNET]}}</ref> Abduction is used as the mechanism for getting from art to agency. That is, abduction can explain how works of art inspire a ''sensus communis:'' the commonly held views shared by members that characterize a given society.<ref name="University of California, Berkeley">Whitney D. (2006) "Abduction the agency of art". Retrieved May 2009 from: [http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/davis/Gell.pdf University of California, Berkeley] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120152801/http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/davis/Gell.pdf |date=2008-11-20 }}</ref>

The question Gell asks in the book is, "how does it initially 'speak' to people?" He answers by saying that "No reasonable person could suppose that art-like relations between people and things do not involve at least some form of [[semiosis]]."<ref name="Gell, A 1984, p 14" /> However, he rejects any intimation that semiosis can be thought of as a language because then he would have to admit to some pre-established existence of the ''sensus communis'' that he wants to claim only emerges afterwards out of art. Abduction is the answer to this conundrum because the tentative nature of the abduction concept (Peirce likened it to guessing) means that not only can it operate outside of any pre-existing framework, but moreover, it can actually intimate the existence of a framework. As Gell reasons in his analysis, the physical existence of the artwork prompts the viewer to perform an abduction that imbues the artwork with intentionality. A statue of a goddess, for example, in some senses actually becomes the goddess in the mind of the beholder; and represents not only the form of the deity but also her intentions (which are adduced from the feeling of her very presence). Therefore, through abduction, Gell claims that art can have the kind of agency that plants the seeds that grow into cultural myths. The power of agency is the power to motivate actions and inspire ultimately the shared understanding that characterizes any given society.<ref name= "University of California, Berkeley" />

===Computer programming===
In [[formal methods]], logic is used to specify and prove properties of computer programs. Abduction has been used in mechanized reasoning tools to increase the level of automation of the proof activity.

A technique known as bi-abduction, which mixes abduction and the [[frame problem]], was used to scale reasoning techniques for memory properties to millions of lines of code;<ref>{{Cite journal|first1=Cristiano|last1=Calcagno|first2=Dino|last2=Distefano|last3=O'Hearn|first3=Peter W.|first4=Hongseok|last4=Yang|date=2011-12-01|title=Compositional Shape Analysis by Means of Bi-Abduction|journal=[[Journal of the ACM]]|volume=58|issue=6|pages=1–66|language=EN|doi=10.1145/2049697.2049700|s2cid=52808268|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bcfefe74-a79c-4155-8160-c51f92f05466}}</ref> logic-based abduction was used to infer pre-conditions for individual functions in a program, relieving the human of the need to do so. It led to a program-proof startup company, which was acquired by Facebook,<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 18, 2013 |title=Facebook Acquires Assets Of UK Mobile Bug-Checking Software Developer Monoidics |url=https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/18/facebook-monoidics/ |access-date=2023-09-30 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240930174905/https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/18/facebook-monoidics/|archive-date=30 September 2024|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Infer program analysis tool, which led to thousands of bugs being prevented in industrial codebases.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Distefano|first1=Dino|last2=Fähndrich|first2=Manuel|last3=Logozzo|first3=Francesco|last4=O'Hearn|first4=Peter W.|date=2019-07-24|title=Scaling static analyses at Facebook|journal=Communications of the ACM|volume=62|issue=8|pages=62–70|language=EN|doi=10.1145/3338112|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In addition to inference of function preconditions, abduction has been used to automate inference of invariants for program loops,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dillig|first1=Isil|last2=Dillig|first2=Thomas|last3=Li|first3=Boyang|last4=McMillan|first4=Ken|title=Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Object oriented programming systems languages & applications |chapter=Inductive invariant generation via abductive inference |date=2013-10-29|chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2544173.2509511|series=[[ACM SIGPLAN Notices]]|volume=48|issue=10|pages=443–456|language=EN|doi=10.1145/2509136.2509511|isbn=9781450323741|s2cid=16518775}}</ref> inference of specifications of unknown code,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Giacobazzi|first=Roberto|date=1998-08-01|title=Abductive Analysis of Modular Logic Programs|url=https://academic.oup.com/logcom/article/8/4/457/1063792|journal=Journal of Logic and Computation|language=en|volume=8|issue=4|pages=457–483|doi=10.1093/logcom/8.4.457|issn=0955-792X}}</ref> and in synthesis of the programs themselves.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Polikarpova|first1=Nadia|last2=Sergey, Ilya|date=2019-01-02|title=Structuring the synthesis of heap-manipulating programs|journal=Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages|language=EN|volume=3|pages=1–30|doi=10.1145/3290385|doi-access=free|arxiv=1807.07022}}</ref>