Induction, deduction and inference to the best explanation

Resumen

Starting from the concept of abduction coined by Pierce, Harman, Josephson and Psillos have recently claimed that inference to the best explanation is the scientific method par excellence and favour a realist conception of scientific theories. In this paper, I evaluate some of the arguments proposed by those philosophers in order to show that inference to the best explanation overcomes some difficulties faced by enumerative induction and the hypothetical-deductive method, concluding that such arguments have some relevant deficiencies.

Key words: abduction, hypothetical deductivism, induction, inference to the best explanation, scientific realism.