Peirce's abduction

Peirce's abduction is a method of reasoning that involves forming the best possible hypothesis to explain a surprising or unexplained observation. It’s the process of generating and choosing a plausible idea that could account for the facts, based on available evidence. Unlike deduction, which guarantees conclusions, or induction, which generalizes from examples, abduction suggests the most likely explanation and often serves as the starting point for further investigation or testing. It’s common in everyday problem-solving and scientific discovery, helping us generate initial theories when faced with new or puzzling data.