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abduction

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abduction

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Abduction  \Ab*duc"tion\,  n.  [L.  abductio:  cf  F.  abduction.] 
  1.  The  act  of  abducing  or  abducting;  a  drawing  apart;  a 
  carrying  away  --Roget. 
 
  2.  (Physiol.)  The  movement  which  separates  a  limb  or  other 
  part  from  the  axis,  or  middle  line  of  the  body. 
 
  3.  (Law)  The  wrongful,  and  usually  the  forcible,  carrying  off 
  of  a  human  being  as  the  abduction  of  a  child,  the 
  abduction  of  an  heiress. 
 
  4.  (Logic)  A  syllogism  or  form  of  argument  in  which  the  major 
  is  evident,  but  the  minor  is  only  probable. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  abduction 
  n  1:  the  criminal  act  of  capturing  and  carrying  away  by  force  a 
  family  member;  if  a  man's  wife  is  abducted  it  is  a  crime 
  against  the  family  relationship  and  against  the  wife 
  2:  (physiology)  moving  of  a  body  part  away  from  the  central 
  axis  of  the  body 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  abduction 
 
    The  process  of  {inference}  to  the  best  explanation. 
 
  Abduction"  is  sometimes  used  to  mean  just  the  generation  of 
  hypotheses  to  explain  observations  or  conclusionsm  but  the 
  former  definition  is  more  common  both  in  philosophy  and 
  computing. 
 
  The  {semantics}  and  the  implementation  of  abduction  cannot  be 
  reduced  to  those  for  {deduction},  as  explanation  cannot  be 
  reduced  to  implication. 
 
  Applications  include  fault  diagnosis,  plan  formation  and 
  {default  reasoning}. 
 
  {Negation  as  failure}  in  {logic  programming}  can  both  be  given 
  an  abductive  interpretation  and  also  can  be  used  to  implement 
  abduction.  The  abductive  semantics  of  negation  as  failure 
  leads  naturally  to  an  {argumentation}-theoretic  interpretation 
  of  default  reasoning  in  general. 
 
  [Better  explanation?  Example?] 
 
  ["Abductive  Inference",  John  R.  Josephson 
  ]. 
 
  (2000-12-07)




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