Abstract

N. R. Hanson has argued that abductive reasoning relates strongly on the conceptual aspect of problem solving. In different kinds of intellectual enterprizes involving creation of new knowledge, language has an essential role. This conceptual aspect is here approached from a perspective of theory of linguistic meaning. The approach from theory of meaning intends to provide theoretical presuppositions for meaningful expressions and, thus, thoughts. It is argued that these presuppositions characterize the content of abductive reasoning. Language is essential for expressing and communicating knowledge, but it also plays role in how meaningful thoughts about the world are constructed. It is argued here that the propositional content of thoughts is related to language through logical and grammatical forms of language. If abductive reasoning is seen as reasoning bound by certain presuppositions , and the possible number of conclusions of reasoning is limited, these linguistic structures characterize the.rst criterion for possible meaningful hypothesis suggestions. The theory of meaning, especially provided by Jerrold Katz, has also another useful theoretical device for understanding abduction, in addition to the compositional sentence meaning described above. Especially in pragmatism the meanings of linguistic expressions are seen to be dependent of the context they are used. These contextual tokens of meanings provide contextual information of the possible uses and meanings of a linguistic expression. These two theoretical conceptions from the theory of meaning can provide more thorough understanding of the contents of abductive reasoning