Abductive reasoning (abduction) symbolic AI
noun phrase
Definition: A form of logical inference that starts from an observation (or a set of observations) and seeks the simplest or most likely explanation; it yields a plausible conclusion rather than a logically certain one [Bakanach 2023].
Example in context: “Abductive Reasoning has long been considered to be at the core ability of humans, which enables us to infer the most plausible explanation of incomplete known phenomena in daily life.” [Li et al. 2023]
Synonyms: abduction; inference to the best explanation
Related terms: deduction, induction