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Abductive reasoning and the formation of scientific knowledge within nursing research
Author(s) -
Råholm MajBritt
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
nursing philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.367
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1466-769X
pISSN - 1466-7681
DOI - 10.1111/j.1466-769x.2010.00457.x
Subject(s) - abductive reasoning , scientific reasoning , deductive reasoning , epistemology , inference , computer science , psychology , artificial intelligence , philosophy
Peirce's notion of abductive reasoning and the way this reasoning can enhance forming of scientific knowledge within nursing research is of great importance. Abduction is the first stage of inquiry within which hypotheses are invented; they are then explicated through deduction and verified through induction. In an abductive model, new ideas emerge by taking various clues and restrictions into account, and by searching and combining existing ideas in novel ways. Thus, abduction can be developed further as a ‘pure’ form of inference and this gives means for analysing and organizing the abductive search explicitly within the research community.