retroduction

English

Etymology

From Latin retroducere, retroductum (“to lead or bring back”), from retro (“backward”) + ducere (“to lead”).

Noun

retroduction (countable and uncountable, plural retroductions)

1. (obsolete) A leading or bringing back.
   • 1799 December, John Middleton, “A View of the Agriculture of Middlesex”, in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal, page 404:

     On the subject of Planting, Mr. M. is of opinion that 'the offering premiums for the general increase of wood is going retrograde, or constributing towards a retroduction of uncultivated nature; instead of which, this country ought to be in a state of garden-like cultivation.

   • 1880, House documents - Volume 1; Volume 327, page 45:

     Touching the free introduction and retroduction of incomplete manufactures to be finished, or advanced, and then returned, a trade which has been very profitable to Germany.

   • 2013, Keith Lindley, The English Civil War and Revolution: A Sourcebook, page 165:

     Therefore we demand a speedy retroduction of our imprisoned king to sit personally in the House of Peers, that the supreme court of the kingdom may not be any longer...called a master without a head.

2. (logic) Synonym of abduction
   • 1995, Douglas R. Anderson, Strands of System: The Philosophy of Charles Peirce, page 161:

     Whereas retroduction involves one step, and deduction involves two, induction, as the third stage, involves three: classification, probationary argument, and appraisal of the probations.

   • 2008, Michael L. Morrison, ‎William M. Block, ‎M. Dale Strickland, Wildlife Study Design, page 11:

     Note that deduction and retroduction employ the same form of logical statement to determine either the post- or precondition, respectively.

   • 2010, Janet Broughton, ‎John Carriero, A Companion to Descartes, page 86:

     What distinguishes retroduction from the other two main forms of inference employed in inquiry into nature, deduction and induction (inductive generalization), is its reliance on explanatory quality for its epistemic force (McMullin 1992).

3. (by extension) A system of research or problem-solving based on abduction; A dialectic method of working from existing information to achieve a theory or from a desired outcome to achieve a design.
   • 1987, James J. Kerley, An Application of Retroduction to Anlyzing and Testing the Backing Off of Nuts and Bolts During Dynamic Loading, page 6:

     This is the big advantage of retroduction; it is difficult the first time it is attempted, but with a little experience, you can select the designs more and more quickly. Most good designers perform retroduction without realizing it.

   • 2006, Phyllis Chiasson, “The Semiotic Structure of Practical Reasoning Habits”, in Ricardo Gudwin, João ‎Queiroz, editor, Semiotics and Intelligent Systems Development, page 74:

     Elsewhere (Chiasson, 2005), I demonstrate that abduction can be considered an aspect of retroduction rather than as a synonym for it.

   • 2009, Marike Bontenbal, Cities as Partners, page 310:

     Retroduction is an alternative research model which makes it possible to link evidence (induction) and social theory (deduction) in a continually evolving, dynamic process (Sather, 1998).

Related terms

• retroduce
• retroductive

References

• “retroduction”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.