On the Mechanization of Abductive Logic

Abduction Is a basic form of l og i ca l inference, which is said to engender the use of p lans, perceptua l models, i n t u i t i o n s , and analogical reasoning a l l aspects of I n t e l l i g e n t behavior that have so far f a i l e d to f i n d representat ion in ex is t ing formal deduct ive systems. This paper explores the abductive reasoning process and develops a model fo r i t s mechan iza t ion , .which consists of an embedding of deduct i v e log ic in an i t e r a t i v e hypothesis and test procedure. An appl icat ion of the method to the problem of medical diagnosis is discussed.