Aristotle gave an extended, systematic treatment of the methods of human reasoning. The three methods were deductive, inductive, and abductive reasonings.
Deductive Reasoning
It is also known as analytical reasoning as it deals with objects by looking at its component parts. This type of reasoning can also be called deductive reasoning. Formal logic has been described as the science of deduction.
Inductive Reasoning
Inductive reasoning is also known as ‘synthetically reasoning‘ and deals with a class of objects by looking at the common properties of each object in the class. The study of inductive reasoning is generally carried out within a field known as ‘informal logic‘ or ‘critical thinking’.
Abductive Reasoning
Abductive reasoning is considered as the third form of reasoning. it is somewhat similar to inductive reasoning. It takes its clues from the term ‘guessing‘, since conclusions drawn here are based on probabilities. Here, it is presumed that the most plausible conclusion is also the correct one.
Example:
Major premise: The container is filled with yellow pebbles.
Minor premise: Bobby has a yellow pebble in his hand.
Conclusion: The yellow pebble in Bobby’s hand was taken out of the container.
By abductive reasoning, the possibility that Bobby took the yellow pebble from the container is reasonable, though it is purely based on speculation. Anyone could have given the yellow pebble to Bobby, or probably Bobby could have bought a yellow pebble at a retail store. Therefore, abducting that Bobby took the yellow pebble, from the observation of ‘the yellow pebble filled container’ may lead to a false conclusion. Unlike deductive and inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning is not commonly used for psychometric testing.
