Charles Sanders Peirce · Philosophy

Abduction and Fallibilism

Peirce&rsquo;s logic of discovery and his theory of knowledge&rsquo;s limits: <em>abduction</em>, the reasoning that forms explanatory hypotheses and is the only inference that introduces a new idea, paired with <em>fallibilism</em>, the doctrine that inquiry never reaches absolute certainty yet genuinely progresses by correcting itself.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Peirce distinguished three modes of inference - deduction, induction, and abduction (hypothesis-forming) - and held that only abduction introduces new ideas, while his fallibilism denies we ever reach absolute certainty yet affirms real progress through self-correction. Explain abduction&rsquo;s role…

Leads to René Descartes.

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