Compositional Abduction and Scientific Interpretation
A Granular Approach

A science-first account of an important way scientists sometimes confirm compositional hypotheses, namely, through compositional abduction.

Kenneth Aizawa (Author)

9781009435697, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 December 2025

274 pages
28 x 19 x 2.2 cm, 0.63 kg

'Aizawa's Compositional Abduction and Scientific Interpretation is a model for science-first history and philosophy of science. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the role of explanatory reasoning in experimental science.' Kevin McCain, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Abductive reasoning is a form of inference that infers some hypothesis because of what that hypothesis explains. Unlike deductive reasoning, it yields a plausible conclusion but does not definitively verify it. The theory of compositional abduction developed in this book provides a novel theory of confirmation. Aizawa uses case studies to analyse how scientists interpret the results of experiments to support compositional hypotheses (hypotheses about what things are composed of) and suggests that they use a kind of abduction. His theory is offered as an alternative account of scientific reasoning that the logical empiricists would have interpreted as hypothetico-deductive confirmation. It is also an alternative to the Peircean interpretation of the role of abduction in science. It will be valuable to philosophers of science, those working on hypothetico-deductive confirmation, Peirce's view of abduction, inference to the best explanation, and the New Mechanism. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. The metatheory of the project
2. Singular compositional explanations
3. Singular compositional explanations: special cases
4. Singular compositional abduction
5. The compositional basis of resting and action potentials
6. The hermann grid illusion
7. Peirce and the neo-peirceans
8. Harman and inference to the best explanation
9. Lipton and inference to the best explanation
10. Manipulationist new mechanism
11. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA]